Growing Up Gay & Catholic

Toxic religion can have devastating effects for LGBTQ+ youth like Andres Cardenas. Growing up gay in an extremely religious Catholic family, Andres faced intense homophobia, including parents that believed being gay is like joining a demonic cult, "you can't reason with people who think you are demonically possessed". In this exclusive feature interview with Pink Planet tv, Andres, explains how growing up gay in a staunch Catholic home meant a childhood filled with confusion, shame and guilt. At his lowest point, Andres even considered harming himself because the bible said to cut out your eye or cut off your hand if it is causing you to sin, "I was looking at gay porn and masturbating to images of the male form and I was actually considering chopping off my hand or chopping out my eye".