I'm From Driftwood is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit archive for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer stories. New stories are posted on the site every Wednesday.
It might not come as a surprise to you that Noah Michelson, Executive Editor of The Huffington Post's Gay Voices vertical, is a proud queer man. What might surprise you is how young he was when he first discovered his pride and sexuality. Noah recalls:
I came out of the womb ready to go, and not just queer but also super-sexual, and I don't really know where that came from. And I don't think anyone really does. But when I say that, I mean my first memories and my first urges and desires were wanting to have sex with men. I had crushes on Mister Rogers, and I had a crush on Jesus. Any kind of masculine figure in my life, I wanted to be having sex with them.
Many young gay kids keep those urges and thoughts private. Noah, however, did just the opposite:
I remember one day I snuck outside, and I was just in my underwear, and I did a dance for the garbage man. I don't know what that dance was like; I just picture in my head some kind of really horrible, seductive dance that I had seen somewhere. I was probably 4 or 5 at the time.
Noah's seductive dance resulted in the garbage man calling him a "little queer." After Noah told his dad what had happened, his father headed out the door to confront the garbage man. It was then that Noah first began articulating the way he felt and becoming the man he is today:
[H]e went to go and confront the garbage man. He walked towards the door, and I said, "No, no, Dad, wait. I like being queer." And I didn't really know what that meant then, obviously, so I didn't know what "queer" meant. I just thought it meant "magnificent" and "unusual" and "not like everybody else," and I thought that was something that I wanted to be.
WATCH:
For more stories, visit I'm From Driftwood, the LGBTQ Story Archive.