Billy Ray's Secret

A Gay, Coming-of-Age Novel

In a small, Bible-Belt town like Restaria, Billy Ray Higby tries to find his way to understanding his gay feelings, in the midst of his Baptist father and drunk mother. He takes refuge in an Italian, Catholic family—an anomaly in the south—where he becomes best friends with Jimmy, who he eventually falls in love with. Jimmy doesn't know or want to know how he feels about Billy Ray, because he's a jock and wants to be a lawyer and have a family. However, as Billy Ray's father murders one of his promiscuous wife's lovers, Jimmy and his family come to the rescue. The rest is Tennessee history. Billy Ray says it best: "Restaria was undoubtedly my home. It fed me baby food. I suckled from the paps of its small-mindedness, until I grew weak from hunger and needed the strength of richer, more complex food. Restaria was where I grew beyond my rural upbringing to chase for stars in a new vicinity. And there, where indiscrimination resided, and I could discover my own set of truths, I found what I’d been looking for in a new place called Honesty."