So, we've established that you guys both grew up in Texas. What was growing up gay in Texas like? Which towns are you guys from?

EH: He’s from Austin and I grew up north of Houston in a tiny town with a population of less than a thousand.

What was that like: being a gay boy in a small town?

EH: You know, it was strange because I didn’t really know. We lived in this tiny small town on a farm until I was thirteen and then we moved to the big city of Dallas. But, at the time, I had an uncle who was gay and had a partner –

On which side?

EH: My father’s brother, who I just spent Thanksgiving with: big, gay Thanksgiving. It was wonderful. But, at the time, I thought, “Oh, he’s an eccentric composer who teaches at a private school in the Northwest and comes home to play piano concertos just for Christmas. Who’s this best-friend of his, Robert?”

As far as my upbringing went, we had a very strict Christian, fundamentalist, Southern Baptist way of life that included going to church about three days a week. There was not much fire and brimstone as far as the gay topic went. I think maybe once when I was young it was addressed – very briefly. I remember thinking, “Huh? That doesn’t make any sense.” I had no frame of reference for it. It wasn’t on television. We had maybe two channels that we could actually get, because cable’s impossible when you’re in the middle of a two hundred acre farm. So, I guess I started – No, I do remember: in the fifth grade I had my first crush on a boy. His name was Quentin and I followed him around on a field trip with a disposable camera and they took all these pictures of Quentin.

AS: [Laughs]

EH: He was really cute. But, still, even then I didn’t have a frame of reference for it. I remember being angry with the girls because they were spending too much time with my guy friends and, in retrospect, I probably just had crushes on all them. But, so, yeah, until I was about thirteen or fourteen when we moved to the city, I never really understood that dynamic. It wasn’t a conversation that was ever had in my family or in school.

When did you first meet a gay person who wasn’t your uncle?

EH: Well, I lived with my oldest brother all my life and never knew that until college. My older brother’s gay.

Oh, really? How many kids are there?

EH: There are five of us total. And I wish I could remember – I always had a propensity for the gayness. All my family did theater, so I did theater. I just had all these wacky people in my life growing up. Yeah, I went to theater camp for three summers in the middle of high school. Silly things like that. So I guess there were a few that I knew were gay, but it was never discussed.

What was it like coming out to your Southern Baptist, church going family?

AS: Yeah, how did that go?

EH: That was kind of – horrible.