Devon | Betrayal Weekly

Devin grew up in the Pacific Northwest.

Her family's house was surrounded by five acres of land, which made for a perfect playground for Devin and her older sister.

We would just disappear into the wilds of our backyard for hours playing, and come in when we heard a bell [laughs] to have a snack.

Her family had a farm, complete with horses, chickens, and llamas.

You could sell individual llamas for tens of thousands of dollars, and so my mom started a llama business for income.

They would put me in a llama auction with the llama to show how gentle it was, and I would be leading this large animal around as a very small child and just smiling.

And I still remember the auctioneer being like, "Oh, da, da, da.

Oh, look at the big smile on that child.

Da, da, da." You know?

Devin and her sister were homeschooled all through elementary and middle school.

When she started ninth grade, her parents enrolled her in their town's public high school.

I remember walking in and just beaming at every single person I saw.

I think people thought something was wrong with me, but I was just so happy to be around so many people.

And I thrived in high school.

She always participated in class discussions, but there was one day in history class that felt different.

We were having a debate about the Supreme Court case between the Boy Scouts of America and Dale.

Boy Scouts of America versus Dale was a Supreme Court case in 2000.

The Boy Scouts revoked James Dale's membership when they found out he was gay.

This was, like, big news at the time, and our history teacher had us set up a debate to argue for having gay people in Boy Scouts and against having gay people in Boy Scouts.

And I was the only one in a class of 30 kids that was arguing for gay people to be allowed to be in the Boy Scouts.

It wasn't an environment where Devin could comfortably explore who she was.

The message from her high school was clear: fit in or be left behind.

behind.There were two gay people that I knew in high school, and both left because it was such a homophobic environment.

And so I was staying safe by winning people over and not truly being my full self.

After high school, Devin started college in a city a few hours away.