A queer musician raised in a mostly white Kentucky suburb was pressured by his church to attend a Brazilian ex-gay ministry aimed at changing same-sex attraction. He connected briefly with a counselor on Zoom and felt shocked that the person was presented as a “success story.” Leaving Christianity to accept his queerness brought isolation, with no affirming support and a sense that others thought he was insane. After gaining strength to come out, he began reframing earlier shame into creative material, including queer symbolism and openly leaning into identity in videos. His music blends genre-bending, queer-centric themes and reflects resilience against religious trauma and anti-gay propaganda.
"He was forced to attend a Brazilian ex-gay ministry by the church that wanted to break him of his "SSA" tendencies. Needless to say, it didn't work. "I remember I first connected with this one guy over Zoom briefly. He was essentially a counselor for people who are attracted to the same sex," Culto tells Queer Kentucky in a new profile. "And I remember leaving that Zoom call, thinking... 'he was the success story?'""
"Culto survived the harrowing experience and is now actively fighting against the anti-gay propaganda that put him there. "There was no one affirming me in my journey of leaving Christianity to accept my queerness," he recalls. "It felt like everyone thought I was insane." It wasn't easy for a former youth pastor who once considered going away to seminary school. But when he finally got the strength to come out, things changed for the better."
""Even just like, something as simple as a jock strap," he recalls, "I'd be like, "Oh, that's so cringe. Like, why are people literally showing their a** in a jock strap?" He says of his early days out of the closet. "And now that's a whole part of Cain Culto in all my videos, I'm leaning into queer symbo""
Read at Queerty
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