This particular link is going to be relatively short in that my background isn't all that interesting and a good share of it was productive only in the sense that it brought me to where I am right now. My name is Neil Roth and I am nearly 62 years old. I have three great kids and three grandchildren. I also have an old dog.

I was born and raised Baptist (Baptist General Conference.) My parents were fairly strict but very loving. I went to school in Iowa and then, just before I turned 10, we moved to Denver, Colorado. Almost immediately we found a church to attend and then, after a few months of renting, my folks bought a house in the North Denver metro area. I finished elementary school, junior high and my first year of high school in the Denver area.

We moved to Loveland, Colorado in the summer between my 10th and 11th grade. I finished high school at good ol' Loveland High in 1968. In order to avoid going to Viet Nam, we found a small Christian College in Lakewood (a suburb of Denver) for me to attend. It was good the college needed money more than it needed prestige because it ignored my high school grades and let me enroll. I didn't graduate, but I did get to see A LOT of movies in those two and half years at Rockmont. My parents didn't believe in going to the movies so, when I had the chance, I kind of went overboard. Anyway, two and half years later, after I figured out I didn't want to be a psychiatrist and, since I wasn't a Christian to begin with, I sure didn't want to become a preacher, I stopped going to classes altogether. They were getting in the way of going to movies and the bars.

I met a girl at college and we married in 1972. I loved her and still do (and always will). We moved back to Loveland where, reluctantly, I found work. My parents had bought a new house in Loveland and sold us their old one. In 1974 we had our first child - a little girl. I later found out she was so little back then because she was a baby. I thought I would never see the day when I was a father. It was scary and humbling and a great source of pride.

So much for the historical background of my early years. We'll move on into a little of the who I actually am part. When I was 10 or 11 I began to realize that I was gay. I didn't have that language at the time (the common playground language of the time would have been 'queer', 'pansy', or 'sissy' and the common language at home would have been 'pervert', 'sick', 'disgusting' or 'pedophile'). I learned quickly that being that way was wrong and sinful and that there was something terribly wrong with me for having those attractions. The problems started when I began to believe those lies.

My grades began to suffer as I spent so much time trying to hide who I was. Now, to be honest, that wasn't the only reason my grades suffered. Hiding in my closet soon became habit. So did not caring about grades or friends or even too much about family. By the time I got into junior high words like 'faggot' were added to the repertoire that reinforced how evil I must be. I was making decisions about myself that were to affect me for years to come. Decisions I took into my soul - into my beliefs - into myself.

In my junior year of high school I discovered theater. I found a way to become someone else for a time. I found a new way to hide. On stage I felt safe (not 'out', but at least safe.) I also discovered that I didn't need a stage to act - all I needed was an audience. Everyone around me, from friends, peers, family, teachers unknowingly became my audience. What I didn't equate at the time was the fact that acting off stage is simply lying. Quickly dishonesty became engrained in life.