You’re using sexual sin to fill a God-shaped void in your life.
-- John Smid (Monday, June 7, 2004)

Importance: John Smid said this to the patients at LIA, thereby encapsulating the philosophy of the program. Smid believed that homosexuality was sinful, unnatural, and a product of a lack of religiosity. This oppressive form of religious zealotry contributed to much Conley inner suffering during his teenage years and his time at LIA.

Though he never said it outright, each summer he required me to do the kind of manual labor that would help me turn out to be a normal red-blooded Southerner…[and] would offset my more bookish, feminine qualities.
-- Garrard Conley (The Plain Dealers)

Importance: In this line of narration, Conley highlights a specific social element that was highly prominent in the community of his hometown: a deep emphasis on rigidly defined gender identities. Conley was interested in literature from a young age, but this interest was seen as too feminine, and...