Siesta Key's Tarik Jenkins Opens Up About Coming Out & Losing a Loved One in Orlando Massacre

[Guest Nicole]

Jenkins, who was raised in a Jehovah’s Witness household, says he started discovering his sexual preferences in middle school — around the same time he decided to stop going to the Kingdom Hall, a house of worship used by Jehovah’s Witnesses for their religious services, with his family.

“I just felt like I could never tell my parents [that I’m gay] because I knew the aftermath that would follow,” he says. “My cousin came out when he was around 19, and he was banned from the Hall. My grandma wasn’t allowed to talk to him, because she was high up in the church and has been with the religion her whole life.”

“With my parents, my mom and I were best friends,” he says. “I love her so much, and I just didn’t want to taint that relationship.”

When he moved to Miami for college, Jenkins stopped trying to hide his sexuality on social media and with friends — but he still didn’t have a conversation about it with his family.

“Any gay man, bi man, or any other type of sexuality — there’s a point in your life where you have to have that conversation with your parents,” he says. “Well, maybe some don’t have to — their parents just accept them for who they are. But for me, that would have been the most awkward situation I’ve ever had in my entire life. So I felt that me going on the show kind of exempted me from having to have that conversation.”

“I could kill two birds with one stone: I could come out to my entire family, and I could come out to all my friends, all around the world,” he says. “And then I could just see what the aftermath of that would be.”

http://people.com/tv/siesta-key-tarik-jenkins-orlando/