Joseph Smith experienced the First Vision when he was 14 years old. It’s not a coincidence that 14 is about the average age when many LGBT people experience our own “First Visions” — the revelations when we, for the first time in our lives, see ourselves for who we really are. The world raises us to be straight, yet one day in our early teens, as clear as the Sun, our orientations are revealed to us. That is the day we first say to ourselves, “Wow. I am gay.” On that day, like young Joseph, we see God’s plan for our lives. God ends our confusion. God tells us not to join what we see around us. God calls us to be different. Like the young Joseph, we see a truth about ourselves and our world that we fear no one will believe. But sadly, when we as vulnerable teenagers tell our friends, family, and communities about our own personal First Visions, we experience the same response that Joseph Smith had — disbelief, denial, and persecution. Even from those we trust. When Joseph came out to his community about his precious First Vision, he reports that he was “persecuted by those who ought to have been my friends” (Joseph Smith—History 1:28). If you believe Joseph’s First Vision, I challenge you to believe mine as well: that I am meant to be gay.