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ca. 2020, from
“I am Canadian. Born and raised in Nova Scotia. I grew up in a small Black community. Church and community were a major part of my upbringing and both were very integral in shaping my morals and values and my view of life; it’s where my paradigm was formed. As I child, I was loved. I knew it and I felt it. From a young age, growing up in church I was taught that homosexuality was a sin. To be gay was frowned upon. The negative perceptions of gay people and the hate toward the sin was embedded in the culture so I always perceived it as being wrong.
When I became consciously aware that I was attracted to men I hide that fact about myself. Why? Because I had been conditioned to believe it was wrong. I initially didn’t understand the feeling. Why would God make me gay? I had no gay role models to aspire to be like because this country boy didn’t know any. I thought I didn’t have anybody to talk to because I thought no one would understand, so I struggled internally. Alone. I teeter tottered between what I had been taught to what felt natural to me, always choosing the former. Being gay was something that I supressed, it was something that I didn’t discuss with others, depriving myself of myself. I was a prisoner in my own body. Afraid to expose who I really was. Scared to lose the love of my family and friends. I became numb to the fact that I was gay.1
The remainder of the article can be found here and is also archived in the H•R•E files.
Runner-up of Canadian Idol in 2004, from Cherry Brook.
Beals was the subject of the March, 2004 WayvesMagazine editorial by IanCrowe, What's the Deal with Beals? after he appeared as an entertainer at a Focus On The Family rally sponsored by the homophobic Rock Church on March 5, 2004.
The following month his picture, this time in the arms of one of the Canadian Idol judges, was again featured on the April Fools spoof cover of WayvesMagazine with the caption, "Beals attends anti-gay rally in Dartmouth with a 'close friend.'"
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