Putting the “Fun” back in “Fundamentalism”: Part 1, Sex Sounds Good

The following is from an email Lo received from an admirer, slightly adapted to protect the guilty:

Dear Lo,

I know you don’t know me, but I feel as if I know you — really know you. Like Biblically know you. Sorry if that sounds weird or creepy. It’s just that I’ve been reading mysexlifewithlola for a long time and I even got all five audiobooks of Match, Cinder and Spark from Audible.com.

I’m writing to you because I thought you might be interested in what happened to me lately. I’m eighteen and I grew up in the Bible Belt. My parents are both fundamentalist Christians and I’m surrounded by evangelical Christians. I don’t subscribe to their beliefs. Maybe I did once, when I was young, but since about fifteen, I’ve gradually grown out of that. It’s probably no coincidence that my falling out with the Church coincided with my budding sexuality. Early on I knew I wasn’t “normal” and I didn’t fit in with all the couples of my school or the families of my community. I was attracted to women, but also men. I knew very well the consequences that happen to people like me if they get found out — conversion camp.

I kept to myself. I had very few friends and no romantic partners. There were a few people I could tell were like myself, but I dared not approach them. The fear was terrible. I was always anxious that I’d be found out and exposed for what I was — a freak. The threat was real, constant, and terrifying. Worse than the fear of death!

But thankfully I had an out: college. I was a very good student — mainly because I knew that getting out of my small town, my state, and the south was the only way for me to become me. I applied to and got accepted to some good colleges in the northeast and in California. I saw the dawn of freedom on the horizon and I couldn’t wait! That was summer 2019. I left for college in August and everything was going great! I immediately dove into so many relationships. I was what you would call “a slut” — in the most liberatory sense of that word! It was great, while it lasted.

But then came March, 2020 and COVID.

I was forced to move back in with my parents and two older brothers back in the small house in the backwaters of our backwards…