I am not a stranger to the dark. 
“Hide away,” they say, “’cause we don’t want your broken parts.”

 I grew up in a very conservative, religious environment. My family, churches, and the Christian schools I attended always taught me that being gay was a sin. I hid that part of myself from everyone and fought so hard to make it go away. I didn’t want God to hate me. I didn’t want my “sin” to isolate me from my family or send me to hell.

 When the sharpest words wanna cut me down,
I’m gonna send a flood, gonna drown them out.
I am brave; I am bruised; I am who I’m meant to be.
This is me.

 It took a long time for me to make the words of this song my own. Coming out was a long and often difficult process. But the day that same-sex marriage was legalized in South Carolina, I finally decided to come out publicly via social media. I thought about that moment when I first heard this song—the moment that I was able to unashamedly tell the world: THIS IS ME!

– Shelton