Caden, a quiet eighth-grade student, recounts a pivotal moment during a church mission trip in 2013 when he meets Andrew, a bold and confident peer who openly declares his bisexuality. This experience deeply unsettles Caden, who had long suppressed his own queer identity in a conservative religious environment. Inspired by Andrew’s courage, Caden gradually comes out to friends and family over the years, using him as a model of authenticity. Years later, Caden searches for Andrew to thank him, only to find he has changed—now in his mid-twenties, no longer bisexual, and living independently from religious and family pressures. Andrew explains that his early outness was a rebellion against parental and institutional coercion, and that his identity evolved over time. Though Andrew’s current social media content contains homophobe-leaning memes, Caden learns these were made during a painful period of instability after being kicked out of his home. The encounter ultimately becomes a profound lesson for Caden: it’s okay to be who you are, even if that changes over time. Today, Caden teaches with a pride flag in his classroom, creating a safe and affirming space for LGBTQ+ students—showcasing how a single moment of vulnerability can ripple into lasting personal and social transformation.
what sorry we were cut off we didn't have a proper goodbye so i was just calling back
so take care we weren't cut off oh you hung up on my face okay okay before you go are you an
innie or an outie i'm asking because i was just going to buy you a sweatshirt for simchas torah
because let's go oh hi how are you it's very surprising to me to even see how polite you can
be to other people okay i'm very polite why can't you be like that with me i am
from pushkin industries i'm jonathan
goldstein and this is heavyweight today's episode caden
right after the break
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hi caden hi hello um i think you're the first caden i've met you're the second jonathan i've
interacted with today so i have a student named jonathan oh our experiences are quite the opposite
caden teaches eighth grade to students named jonathan and possibly other names too he's here
to tell me a story about when he was in eighth grade back then he was a student in eighth grade
and caden was the kind of kid who ate lunch alone he kept to himself and followed the rules even at
his church youth group the main social hub of his life caden remained on the sidelines it's in youth
group that his story takes place people at church were always like wow you'd be like a really good
pastor like you're really stoic quiet and i remember being like i don't know i think part
of being a pastor is you do have to to speak if the meek did
inherit the earth caden would have been first in line but when approached by the lord with a
quick claim to sign caden would have been too shy to ask for a pen in the summer of 2013 his church's
youth group headed off for a mission trip to oklahoma they were meeting up with several other
churches to help clean up after a recent tornado you were going there to do disaster relief yes
which is
funny in retrospect is like what what were 13 14 year olds going to do when they got to the dorms
where they'd be staying caden's youth pastor pulled him aside it was then that he told him
about andrew andrew was another kid on the trip the pastor said andrew was a little loud a little
chaotic but maybe caden could be a good influence the pastor then informed caden that for the
I go into this room and the kid's already there.
And I'm like, oh my, like we've been here for 10 minutes and all your clothes are out and about.
And then here's me like clinging to my bag.
I'm like, I'm scared to put it down.
What if he rummages through or something?
Right.
I mean, he was such a different personality than me.
Just a mile a minute flying with ideas.
I remember he was like starting to do like a little workout in the room.
Like he was doing pushups.
While Andrew pushed floor, possibly while shirtless,
Caden, fully shirted, possibly even undershirted, slumped on the edge of the bed.
As they settled in, Andrew found a box of tampons that had been left behind.
Pulling one out, he swung it by the string like a lasso.
Caden looked on in horror.
How, he wondered, was he going to exert influence over Andrew?
The next morning, they rose early and got to work, which mostly meant picking up garbage in the height of summer.
It was 90 degrees.
It was really sweaty.
I had to clean a port-a-potty, which was terrible.
You have to really love God.
I mean, we were out in the sun for hours and hours and hours.
And I remember at some point we were taking a break near the van.
Caden was sitting with some girls from his youth group.
And they're like, hey, like, what's your roommate going on about?
Caden said,
Caden looked over and saw Andrew holding court before a group of kids.
He was just kind of going off about something.
And the topic of his impromptu sermon?
He's like, I'm bisexual. I'm bisexual.
I'm like, and I remember that being the first time I'd ever heard someone say those words in real life.
And I heard him say it, and like, I had this drop in my gut.
Hearing Andrew just casually admit to something like that frightened Caden.
I was so scared of it because I was starting to understand it in myself.
I'd been questioning my own sexuality for a few years to that point.
It was constantly top of mind every day.
Like, turn on incognito mode and take the early 2010s am I gay quiz from some random website.
And manipulating the answer so that way it said no, because we don't want that.
And you would not voice this to anybody, any friends?
I had never voiced this to anyone.
You don't, we don't say that.
It was a very conservative church environment.
To illustrate, Caden shares an example from a couple years later.
I remember when the same-sex marriage ruling came down in 2015.
I went into church for the first time since that ruling came out.
And I've never experienced it.
But they refused to turn the lights on in the building because it was a day of mourning.
Wow.
This is like, maybe not the ultimate sin, but it is up there high.
Caden had learned that being queer was something you stuffed down and buried.
It wasn't declared loudly nor proudly like Andrew had.
Especially not to people you barely knew.
Especially not on a church trip.
And so I was so just like,
how is he doing that?
And why is he doing that?
I remember that night we came back.
I was so worried about betraying anything, of being curious,
because that was another emotion.
It's like when you see like the scary animal at the zoo,
but you want to get closer to the glass,
but you never want to go past the glass.
And I remember being back in the room and he's like,
I'm bisexual.
I'm like,
I've heard.
I've heard.
And at the time I was like,
I really have,
I have like every question under the sun.
And I refused to ask any of them.
As the trip wore on though,
a change occurred in Caden.
Rather than Caden tamping down Andrew,
Andrew was tamping up Caden.
When Andrew dropped to the floor to do his pushups,
Caden would do pushups too.
He'd also join Andrew on his explorations of the dorms,
even sneaking,
into off-limits areas of the building and out to the parking lot at night.
For someone as sheltered as Caden,
it felt taboo and exciting.
Andrew was like a passkey.
I remember warming up to him in a way that I couldn't admit to anyone.
I started to understand him to be such a cooler person.
And so throughout the week,
the more we talked,
the more I was just like,
I wonder what that would be like to be him,
for a moment.
On the last day of the trip, everyone said their goodbyes and exchanged phone numbers.
Did you keep in touch with Andrew after that?
So I didn't have a phone at the time, and I was borrowing my mom's cell phone.
So a week later, when Caden's mom started getting texts from someone named Andrew, she was confused.
She was like, who's texting me? Who's this person?
And Caden, because he felt he couldn't say anything, just watched as his mother deleted the contact.
But in the months to come, he kept thinking about Andrew,
thinking about what it would feel like to be so comfortable in your own skin.
For Caden, someone who felt embarrassed by his mere existence, this was a big, almost impossible thought.
The following year, Caden was in the hospital.
The following year, Caden got his own phone.
And while texting a friend one day, he thought back to Andrew.
Andrew had been able to come out to strangers,
so Caden should at least be able to come out to a friend.
And that's what he did.
Sort of.
He texted his friend, I'm G.
And then he was like, you're what?
Like, I don't know what that means.
I'm like, let me give you the second letter.
And then finally, I'm like, oh shoot, this is a really short word.
And then I remember being like, well,
screw it, like Andrew did.
And I sent, I'm gay.
And how was it received by your friend?
Like, the best I could ask for.
Oh, that's cool.
I remember being like, okay, like, I did what Andrew did
in less of an outburst-y way.
He kind of set me up to be like, well,
if he can do it in his way,
then I can do it in my way.
And then I did.
And then the next time when I came out to more friends,
when I was 15, a year later,
like, every time, when I was 16,
to my parents, 17, like, kept going back,
well, like, Andrew did it.
Wow.
If he did it, and then, so I did it again, and again.
But there's one person Cadence always wanted to come out to
that he's not been able to.
His inspiration, Andrew.
The problem is, he's never been able to find him.
I'd want to just say,
thank you, because I think
I was so isolated, repressed, quiet,
and I didn't know an escape hatch.
And he didn't even provide an escape hatch.
He just provided, like, an open field of, like,
you can just go and do that.
13 years later, and Cadence is in his mid-20s,
he's left the church and gone from being the quiet kid
to someone who strikes up long conversations with strangers.
And if he's been able to get to that place,
he can only imagine where Andrew has gotten.
Who could he be now?
Um, I'd love to know, like, where he ended up.
I hope I didn't influence him the wrong way,
like a Freaky Friday situation.
He's, like, on a Christian broadcast recording
talking about how I influenced him to be, like, stoic and repressive.
After the break, we find out.
This is, like, every, like, homophobic parent family's worst fear
is, like, you go on the church trip and you come back gay.
If you're a music fan, here's a new podcast to check out.
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You know him as the producer, songwriter, guitarist,
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But in this series, he's hitting the road to sit down
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From hitmakers like Miguel to rising stars like Alex Warren,
Nile explores the stories behind the careers,
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Through candid conversations and personal stories,
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This is Jacob Goldstein.
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For I don't know how long,
maybe 12, 13 years,
I've worn a WHOOP band on my wrist.
I started doing it because I met the founder of WHOOP
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Caden?
Howdy.
Are those overalls or coveralls?
They are overalls.
It's overall Friday, because I'm over it all.
Hey, nice.
The kids say I'm a bit of a poser with them.
They're like--
Why?
Oh, because you don't actually work with your hands.
I don't need overalls.
It's just the aesthetic.
Sure.
So, yeah, what's been going on?
What's been going on since we last spoke?
Yeah, um, so, nothing, and then suddenly something.
It's been several months since Caden and I last spoke.
In the meantime, he's taken the lead on Project Find Andrew.
I'd suggest that he start by reaching out to his old youth
pastor, and when that didn't bear fruit,
Caden just kept going, reaching out
to a chain of different pastors at different churches,
hoping to find someone who knew Andrew back then.
But it was all dead ends, until one day, when Caden got a message from Andrew's old youth
pastor, and the message contained Andrew's full name and contact information.
I was really excited, and I was, like, overwhelmed.
I was, like, I didn't want to, like, reach out right away, because I was, like, it is
later in the evening, so I did naturally, was, like, I wonder if I can find him on social
media.
I scrolled through, like, 30 different Facebook pages, and I found his Facebook of Andrew.
And this is where a problem arose, a freaky problem.
And just kind of getting the sense that there's a chance that this person I've built in my
memory doesn't necessarily reflect a current reality.
The first thing Caden noted was Andrew's profile photo.
Let me pull up his picture.
Okay.
Because I think there's this, like, visual cue.
Oh, he looks like Mr. Straight Guy.
Yes.
He's, like, got a backwards baseball cap.
He's got shades hanging off his t-shirt.
He's got his foot up on a semi, like a truck?
It's like a plane.
Oh, it's an airplane.
But it wasn't just the hat, the airplane, nor the foot on the airplane.
Andrew's profile was full of memes, like this one.
Don't gay people realize that they actually need straight people?
No.
And not the other way around?
And I was like, whoa.
Oh, interesting.
Okay.
Okay.
It's like that classic homophobia of gay people exist, maybe.
And if they do, it's because of straight people.
You can't have two gay people make a straight person.
They can't reproduce.
Caden grew up hearing this kind of thing.
But he didn't expect to hear it from Andrew.
He also, I actually just found out that he was gay.
And if they do, it's because it's straight people.
Caden grew up hearing this kind of thing,
but he didn't expect to hear it from Andrew.
He also, I actually just found this one.
He has a meme on here that says,
straight pride.
It's natural, it's worked for thousands of years,
and you can make babies.
The way that you described him back then,
I thought like he was going to be on the top echelon
of like the main float of a pride parade or something.
Same, I would have expected that.
- Caden's gone from feeling excited to meet Andrew
to feeling apprehensive, especially apprehensive
given the moment we're living through now.
- From like 2015 to 2017,
And, like, there was, like, this upward trajectory,
as so it seemed culturally, of, like, same-sex marriage.
And, like, I think people sometimes forget, like,
Donald Trump, when asked about, like, transgender bathrooms,
did not care about it.
I think it was Caitlyn Jenner.
He was like, she can use the women's restroom.
There was that moment where you could be out and expressive
and the culture had your back.
Even if individuals didn't, like, the culture did.
And I think that's something we've seen a shift on,
where being out is considered a little bit, like, radical again.
Because of that shift,
Caden finds himself more guarded.
He doesn't talk about being gay
at the public school where he teaches.
And in the emails he sent to churches
during his search for Andrew,
he hedged in his language.
Instead of saying, I want to find Andrew
because he helped me come out,
he instead said, I want to find Andrew
because he made a positive
impact.
He was a light.
But that isn't the way he wants to talk to Andrew.
The problem is, though,
he's not sure who Andrew has become.
It's like Caden wants to thank
the young Andrew.
But to do that, he'll have to talk to adult Andrew.
And he's not sure who that is.
I also don't want to
amplify his homophobia.
I don't necessarily want to say, like,
hey, that thing that you dislike,
you made me that way and, like,
lead him on a further path of, like, resentment.
I think it'd be helpful
to have someone else just reach out.
So that way,
if it feels like,
oh, like, this is someone who you probably don't want,
like, just someone who can
help facilitate, that would be
really appreciated.
I'm eager to finally make myself useful.
Since while Caden
was searching for Andrew,
I was spending the bulk of my time
Googling, what's an overall Friday?
Great work.
I didn't know that we were going to find him.
I mean, Andrew did not seem to be a lot to go by.
But now he's here.
Now he's here.
He's queer. Maybe. Maybe not.
We'll see.
We will see.
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There are even photos
of her and Andrew together, framed
in rainbow colors.
What in the name of Francis
Ethel Gumm is going on here?
While the discovery further
baffles me, it does allay
some of my concerns about Andrew's
views. And so, I
message Andrew. And after
some back and forth, he and I
finally speak on the phone.
I quickly learn that Andrew is a
man of few words.
When I ask whether he remembers going on that
mission trip to Oklahoma, he
says, yes.
When I ask if he remembers the name Caden,
he says, vaguely.
I tell him how
Caden remembers his brashness,
his confidence. Yeah,
he says, that sounds like me
back then. Not now,
I ask? Well, he
says, rather cryptically,
life teaches you lessons.
Andrew seems a little knocked
around by life, but he doesn't seem
like a threat. And since Caden
still wants to talk to him, I
decide we should give it a try.
While my ability to make connections
has been well documented,
it's a less known fact that I'm
equally adept at making
disconnections. So I figure
if the whole thing goes sideways,
I can always just disconnect
the line.
Caden? Howdy. Hey, how are
you? Um, alright, so Andrew's
standing by. Okay.
I will bring up
the stuff about his
bisexuality. Okay.
So that you don't have to. Perfect.
But how does
one tactfully bring up such things?
Were you once bisexual?
Are you still?
And by the way, do you
dislike gay people?
Alright, let's, uh,
let's see Andrew. Okay.
And so, I add
Andrew to the video call.
Andrew?
Hey, Jonathan. How are you doing today?
Andrew is lounging on a couch.
His beard is cut short.
And his cap is pointed in a backwards
heterosexual direction.
Uh, this is
Caden. Do you guys, do you
recognize each other?
Ever so slightly. It's been quite
some time. Yeah, it's been a double
the lifetime. What do you remember
from that trip? Ooh.
There was a lot of walking in the sun,
looking for little bits of metal.
I don't know if you remember,
in that field, there was a part where they were like,
look out for body parts. We've already done our
check, but if you do see, like, raise
your hand and we'll come get that for you.
I do. I do remember
that, yeah. Yeah.
Of course, I'm wondering
if Andrew also remembers
his speech by the van.
So I tee up Caden to talk about the general
impression Andrew made back then.
My hope is that it might set
the stage for the questions I want to
ask. Caden, can you
explain for Andrew, like, why, like,
what it was about him at that time that really
kind of was impactful?
Yeah, I,
at the time, I was, like, very
quiet, and
I remember, like, when we first started
rooming together, I was like, oh my gosh,
like, you were, you had a lot
of, like, opinions, and
like, were just very yourself and very
confident, and I just
really admired that.
When Andrew responds, I can't help
hearing his words in the context
of his van speech.
I definitely wasn't afraid to express myself.
Really didn't much care what people
thought. Are there other specific things
that you could think of, like,
like, um, declaring
your sexual orientation to a van
full of strangers?
Um,
trying to think of any specifics, but I
I really didn't like
being told to do stuff that I really
didn't feel was right, and I had
no problems whatsoever
refusing to do that.
Mind you, 13-year-old
me didn't quite always know what was
right, that's for certain.
What are you thinking of?
Oh, I'm not thinking
of anything in particular.
As I back and forth with
Andrew, I fear I might be
inducing a minor panic attack in
Caden. This is the
sound of Caden's leg
jiggling.
For you to better appreciate
his jiggling speed, I've
amplified the sound the way they do
documentaries about insects.
So for Caden's sake,
and the sake of his poor Elvis leg,
I decide to just dive in
and ask the question.
Andrew,
I don't know how comfortable you are talking about this
and if you're not, we
definitely don't have to
go in this
direction, but one of the things that Caden
specifically remembers
was how you were able to talk
openly at the time about
being bisexual.
Is that
something that you still identify with?
No, it's not.
Okay. Are you comfortable talking about
this? Yeah. Yeah, we can
go for it. Yeah? Oh, cool.
And with that,
Caden's leg comes to rest.
Yeah.
I was, like, very much
claustrophobic. I am gay, for the
record, and
I remember at one point you had said you were
bisexual, and you were just very confident
about that. Yeah. When I first came out
to a friend, like, that was, like,
your inspiration of, like, well, he's
done it. Erring on the
side of caution, Caden also
adds, and, like, that you don't
identify in that way now is totally okay
because, like, at that moment
it was such a, like,
I didn't feel so
alone. Good.
Good is
good.
Andrew doesn't seem homophobic,
but at the same time,
what exactly does he seem?
When I ask Andrew
about his bisexuality, he's
fairly matter-of-fact. I guess it was
just something that came, and later
on, something that went.
It went at some point in his teens,
but while he was bi,
Andrew insists he was genuinely
bi. But now,
he's genuinely not.
It's not something you often hear,
and I don't exactly know how to
ask about it. I mean, I don't want to
minimize it. Like, would you say, like, it was something
that you kind of, like, how do you think about it?
Do you think about it as something that you grew
out of, or that just evolved?
No, I wouldn't say grew out of.
I would say I just
knew what I liked,
knew what I didn't. And that just
kind of changed over time.
Yeah. Rather than being
disappointed by this change in Andrew,
Caden sees merit in it.
That you knew who you were then,
and you know who you are now, I think actually is
very admirable, because I think
it's so hard
to have a label
in the first place,
and then to change that.
As for Andrew's impulse
to proclaim who he was so
loudly, proudly, and repeatedly,
that might have been because
of pressure his parents were putting on him
to get in line.
Almost an act of rebelling of,
you're not going to tell me who I am.
I'm the one who decides that.
Both family and the church held
very strong views against it.
Family a little bit more strict
than the church was.
Andrew, are you still involved
in the church? No, I'm not.
I haven't been in years.
It was pushed pretty hard upon me,
and my parents would not take no for an answer.
Got to a point where I turned
18, and they installed
a tracker on my phone, and every week
that I didn't go to church, they'd actually charge me
money. Oh, wow.
And that was kind of the
breaking point for me.
In the back of Caden's mind,
there had been the fear that Andrew
was now straight because
of pressure from the church.
But it turns out that wasn't the case.
Andrew left the church
before posting any of those memes
on his Facebook page.
So then, how to explain the memes?
Where was all of that coming from?
There are
these memes about straight
pride. Are those
like, what are those?
I think a lot of it is just
getting a rise out of people to get a rise out of people.
You do a lot when you're not happy.
I don't
go on Facebook much, and I don't go
through my profile much. Truthfully, I forgot
those were out.
Definitely not my proudest moments.
Andrew is now in his mid-twenties.
When I go back to check the dates
on the memes, they're all concentrated
around eight years ago, the summer
and fall he was 19.
He says it was a bad time.
I won't go into too much detail, but
I got kicked out of the house
because of my parents' divorce.
And if getting
someone else upset makes you feel
a little bit less worse about yourself, that's kind of how
I would handle it. Yeah.
After being forced to leave home,
Andrew moved to Michigan.
It was there that he met his fiancée,
and his fiancée,
Andrew confirms that she
is proudly bi.
She's attracted guys and girls.
That's all cool?
Yeah, I don't care.
Andrew isn't the same person he was
when he was 13.
He isn't the same person he was when he was 19.
He's no longer bi.
He's no longer loud or chaotic.
He keeps his cards pretty close
to the vest.
But like Andrew says,
people change.
It's awesome to hear
that I left a lasting impact
on someone that changed their life
for the better, and that they're
living a happier, comfortable life
because of who I was
when I was a kid.
I always just thought I was a menace.
I'm grateful
I was able to make an impact like that.
Truthfully, I didn't know.
I'm just a dude.
I'm just a guy who goes to work in the morning,
comes home, eats some food,
takes a shower, goes to bed.
But for Caden,
he's more than that.
Andrew was a rainbow-colored meteor
blazing across his childhood.
A kind of miracle
when he needed one most.
And while Andrew might no longer be
the tampon-swinging outlaw Caden remembers,
he's still willing to talk publicly
about what he feels and believes.
No matter what people may think.
And in that way,
Andrew is still Andrew.
Proud of you, Caden.
Really am.
Thank you.
Doing awesome, man.
And in some weird way,
me helping you is helping me.
Take it easy, y'all.
Thank you, Jonathan.
Thank you, Andrew. Take it easy.
Well.
That was surprising.
Yeah.
In all the good ways.
I was so nervous.
And now I'm just like,
I feel really elated, happy.
I don't know, like there was part of me
before I got in this phone call,
I'm like, I can't say the words
I'm gay to him.
Really?
Like I was at work today
just being like,
how do you come out to the person
who taught you how to come out to people?
And then I did.
And I was like,
and I think that's a lesson
I'll keep learning for myself.
What is that lesson?
It's all right to be who I am.
When I asked Caden
if he ever sees himself
coming out to his students,
he says that's a line
he still wonders about.
But he keeps a pride flag
in his classroom
so the kids like him
know it's a safe spot.
He says at a recent pride event,
he ran into a few former students
and their families.
They were excited to see him.
I knew you'd be here,
one of the students said.
And that felt nice.
Now, Caden can be
someone else's passkey.
guitar solo
Now that the last month's rent is scheming
With the damage deposit
Take this moment to decide
If we meant it, if we tried
Or felt around for far too much
From things that accidentally touched
Now that the last month's rent is scheming
Now that the last month's rent is scheming
This episode of Heavyweight was produced by
Kalila Holt and me, Jonathan Goldstein,
along with Lisa Wang.
Our supervising producer is Stevie Lane.
Editorial guidance from Emily Condon.
Special thanks to Ben Natafhaffrey,
Lucy Sullivan, Lydia Jean Cott,
and Jackie Cohen.
Emma Munger mixed the episode with original music
by Christine Fellows, John K. Sampson,
Emma Munger, and Bobby Lord.
Additional scoring by Luke Janela
and Blue Dot Sessions.
Our theme song is by The Weaker Thans,
courtesy of Epitaph Records.
Follow us on Instagram at Heavyweight Podcast or email us at heavyweightpodcast.com.
at pushkin.fm. And be sure to subscribe to our free newsletter at patreon.com
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Podcast Summary
Key Points:
Caden, a quiet eighth-grade student, was profoundly impacted by Andrew, a loud and confident peer on a church mission trip, who openly declared his bisexuality, sparking Caden’s first exposure to queer identity.
The trip became a turning point for Caden, who later came out to friends and family, using Andrew as a model of courage, though he remained cautious due to the conservative environment he grew up in.
Years later, Caden searches for Andrew to thank him, but finds him now in his mid-twenties with a different identity—no longer bisexual, and less flamboyant, having left the church and family pressure behind.
Andrew’s current social media presence includes homophobe-leaning memes, which Caden initially fears reflect a shift in Andrew’s views, but later learns were made during a difficult time after being kicked out of his home.
Andrew explains that his early openness was a form of rebellion against familial and religious pressure to conform, and that he has evolved personally, embracing a more private, stable identity.
Caden realizes that both men have grown—Andrew through self-discovery and Caden through personal courage—and that the impact of that early connection remains meaningful.
The story underscores how personal identity evolves over time and highlights the importance of empathy when confronting past experiences of repression.
Caden now teaches with a pride flag in his classroom, symbolizing a safe space for LGBTQ+ students, showing how the influence of Andrew has transformed into lasting personal and educational change.
Summary:
Caden, a quiet eighth-grade student, recounts a pivotal moment during a church mission trip in 2013 when he meets Andrew, a bold and confident peer who openly declares his bisexuality. This experience deeply unsettles Caden, who had long suppressed his own queer identity in a conservative religious environment. Inspired by Andrew’s courage, Caden gradually comes out to friends and family over the years, using him as a model of authenticity.
Years later, Caden searches for Andrew to thank him, only to find he has changed—now in his mid-twenties, no longer bisexual, and living independently from religious and family pressures. Andrew explains that his early outness was a rebellion against parental and institutional coercion, and that his identity evolved over time. Though Andrew’s current social media content contains homophobe-leaning memes, Caden learns these were made during a painful period of instability after being kicked out of his home.
The encounter ultimately becomes a profound lesson for Caden: it’s okay to be who you are, even if that changes over time. Today, Caden teaches with a pride flag in his classroom, creating a safe and affirming space for LGBTQ+ students—showcasing how a single moment of vulnerability can ripple into lasting personal and social transformation.
FAQs
Andrew's open declaration of being bisexual to a group of strangers in the van was a pivotal moment for Caden, as it was the first time he had heard someone admit their sexuality in real life, which deeply impacted Caden’s own journey of self-discovery.
Caden initially hesitated to come out, but after seeing Andrew's courage, he began by texting a friend 'I'm G' and eventually sent 'I'm gay.' He did this as a way to follow Andrew's example, showing that sharing one's truth could be done in a quiet, personal way.
Caden searched for Andrew by contacting former pastors and church leaders, eventually receiving a message with Andrew’s contact information. He then reached out to Andrew via Facebook, where he found Andrew’s profile had many memes and seemed to reflect a shift in beliefs.
Andrew said he was bisexual when he was 13–19 but no longer identifies that way. He believes his sexuality evolved naturally over time, not because he 'grew out' of it, but because he learned who he liked and who he didn’t.
Andrew is not involved with the church and left it during his teenage years due to intense pressure from his parents. He was also kicked out of his home after his parents’ divorce, which influenced his later life and views.
Caden keeps a pride flag in his classroom to signal a safe and inclusive environment, and he has shared positive experiences with former students who have seen him and felt welcome.
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