Roger, a college friend, worked in one of the Twin Towers as a financial analyst and survived the attack of 9-11. After surviving the attack, he became a changed man…

Roger is from a small town in Oklahoma where he grew up in a traditional, strict and pious family. An abiding Christian, who always looked forward to raising a family of his own, with many children playing in the yard of a cozy house, very similar to his own upbringing.

In college, Roger was the average twenty-something year old who enjoyed going out and meeting ladies, or at least he convinced us that he actually enjoyed dating girls. He worked as hard as any of his male friends to get a girl to go out with him on a date.

Moreover, Roger was a ladies’ man, who frequently scored dates with the prettiest girls on campus, as his perfect charm somehow got girls to give in to his dating demands. He did attend church regularly so the combination of church related activities and functions enabled him to meet a myriad of interesting gals.

After graduating from college, Roger landed a sweet job with Morgan Stanley inside the South Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. He learned to enjoy the city, loved his job and a few years later fell in love with his neighbor, a young Asian lady attending Medical School at Columbia. They both attended the same church.

Roger married her only after dating for a year. He claimed that she was the one, his soul mate, and the only woman who can be the mother of his children. They were extremely happy as a couple and they would often brag that they have never get into an argument or raise their voice at one another. From an outsider’s point of view, they really seemed to enjoy each other as they shared a similar ideology and sacrificed a lot for the sake of the relationship.

A year after the wedding ceremony, Roger became a father and he could not have been any happier. He loved everything about fatherhood; he was even excited about trading in his hot wheels for a minivan and watching Barney instead of his usual marathon of Indie movies. A few years later, he went on to become the father of two boys and one girl. An excited father and husband, Roger was leading the perfect life that he envisioned, and he was so successful as a financial analyst that he was only a few years away from cashing in and moving to his desired ideal small town in Oklahoma to raise his family.

On September 11th, 2001, Roger was sitting at his desk when United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the South Tower after the North Tower was attacked about seventeen minutes earlier. Many were killed during the massacre in the attacks and collapse of the World Trade Center, but along with other fortunate people, Roger was lucky enough to escape as he was in the right place at the right time. Roger walked away from the crumble feeling very lucky and being extremely grateful. Immediately after the attacks, Roger came out of the closet surprising everyone and alienating his family and some of his friends. He did have an amicable divorce from his wife and joint custody of the children.

There is no doubt that different people will draw different conclusions from Roger’s story. I guess, I would conclude that Roger finally broke free of the social stigma attached to homosexuality. The events of 9-11 may have made Roger realize that he could have died that day living a life of deceit where every single day he was pretending to be someone he was not as he was pretending to be someone his family and religion wanted him to be.