From the day we we’re born, LGBTQ people are often at odds with a world that doesn’t understand or appreciate who we are. Like a phantom menace, this shame follows us even though as adults we are out and proud. Queer folks face significantly higher rates of depression, anxiety and drug and alcohol abuse.

Therapist Alan Downs describes this toxic cocktail of anger and rejection in his book “The Velvet Rage: Overcoming the Pain of Growing Up Gay in a Straight Man’s World, Second Edition.”