Homophobic Christian poses as a gay man for a year to reform his beliefs

In what many homophobic Zimbabweans would call satanic, a self-proclaimed US homophobic Christian posed as a gay man for an entire year, even "coming out" to family and friends in the process, all to reform his beliefs.

"[I wanted] to see if there was any justification in the fear I had," Timothy Kurek, of Nashville, told MSNBC.




Kurek, 26, who says his religious upbringing taught him that homosexuality was a sin, launched the experiment in January 2009 after a close female friend broke down in tears and admitted she was gay.

"She had just come out to her family and been brutally disowned," Kurek said. "She had been excommunicated from her entire life and two words changed it all. Two simple words. I'm gay."

His friend's plight caused Kurek to question his faith, and so he began his journey as a fictitious homosexual, beginning by telling his family members he was gay.

"My family was very supportive initially," he told MSNBC. "They treated me with the love and respect I expected. I don't think they quite knew how to react to having a gay family member, but, you know, that was the religious barrier there that we are all kind of captive to."

RKurek began to spend less time with his religious circles and hang out in Nashville's "gayborhood," mingling with the LGBT community at bars, coffee shops and bookstores.

All the while, he was writing a book about his experience, to be released in October. Kurek is currently running a campaign to raise money through pre-sales of the untitled book, at Indiegogo.com.

He told the Daily News the book will include details about how he interacted with the LGBT community, whether anyone could sense he was actually straight, and what his parents said when he admitted to them that he wasn't really gay, and that his "coming out" was only an experiment.

Kurek admits his less-than-authentic journey cannot match that of an honestly gay man.

"I will be the first one to say that my experience is severely limited," he told MSNBC. "There is no way I could possibly understand what it's like to be actually gay.

"And the book itself is not at all about what it is like to be gay, but only about how the label of gay impacted my external life and how those things kind of altered my faith and challenged my beliefs."