In this first episode, I talk with Washington DC radio personality Michael Sharp.

Michael grew up in Shacktown just outside Detroit. His parents were Pentecostal and Catholic, but he and his brother were raised Lutheran and sent to Christian day school.

From the age of 10, Michael knew he was gay, but he never told anyone until many years later. Because of the abuse he saw heaped on the LGBTQ community, he gave up hope. And tried to take his own life with an overdose of pills and by cutting.

At the age of 15, Michael was kicked out of his house by his parents and ended up homeless. For four months, he slept in the back of his Honda Civic, wrapping himself in a sheet so that no one would see him.

At one point, he was run off the road by a gang of four guys just because they saw his rainbow flag sticker. He was beaten and lost part of his hearing.

At times, Michael didn’t think that he had a future, but his world changed when he found a support group for the LGBTQ community in Detroit. Although it started as a suicide prevention group of about six people, it eventually grew into a community of more than a hundred.

Michael’s wisdom and insight invite us all to understand the power of possibility.