I was raised in an evangelical Christian household.

A lot of my childhood is similar to other accounts, corporal punishment and strict parents. I'm also on the spectrum, so a lot of my quirks and tendencies were seen as disobedient and rebellious.

The majority of my religious trauma comes from my teenage years, though. I'm a cis guy who likes fashion and makeup, and my father was extremely homophobic. My father also believed that homosexuality is a choice, and that if someone doesn't know about it, they can't become it.

So, my father was angry and abusive towards me for showing interests in things I liked, but would not communicate this to me, other than sending my mother to chide me once for painting my nails because "it's not what boys do." So there I was, a hurt and confused teenager, who could tell that my parents didn't love me (despite them claiming they punished and mistreated me out of love).

Every week, I'd go to church to hear about how God had unconditional love for all his children, and then I'd go home to be abused and told that it was the same thing.

Any time I expressed hurt or anger, I was told I had to forgive my parents as God forgave me. I was told to follow the commandment "Honor thy Father and Mother".

After graduating highschool at 19, my parents kicked me out of the house and I stopped attending church.

It took many years to fully deconstruct and sort through the damage they did, but they have never apologized, and they continue to insist that their religious approach to raising me was the correct one.