Alone and Unobserved

I don’t know how it’s possible that my ideas have changed so completely over the past year and a half, but it must have happened. Two years ago I considered myself a staunch, Book-of-Mormon-toting Latter-day Saint. I would argue Mormon apologetics for hours, and defend the Mormon religion to the death. Now I consider myself an atheist, am strongly contemplating officially resigning from the Mormon church in the near future, and have come out as gay. The troubling thing is that the change has apparently been so deep that I no longer remember how Mormons think.
I’ve been thinking about this because of my recent coming-out to a close friend. To make a long story short, when I told her that I was a gay atheist she was extremely upset and we are now no longer even distant friends. (To be fair, her stated problem wasn’t the fact that I was gay or atheist, but the fact that I wasn’t “open with her from the start,” which I told her is nonsense.) In retrospect, I should have expected something of the sort, since I know (or should know) that Mormons are fiery opponents of all things gay and irreligious, seeing them as nothing short of a quick trip to hell. The problem? My parents are both extremely Mormon, and have much more reason to feel betrayed than my ex-friend. How will they react?? Dum dum DUMMM!