Craig & Jermaine

JERMAINE (left) – “A mutual friend showed me a photo of Craig. I knew immediately that he was the person that I had waited for all my life – just from seeing his picture.

"I've always had a very weird and unique relationship with God. I remember being asked a question in my spirit as a little child around eight years old, if something was to make you happy and complete your life, what would it be? My mom dated this guy that looked who resembled Craig and she called him Pooh. I wanted my own Pooh because this guy seemed to light up my mom's life.

"I never knew who my biological father was. And I always had this strong desire to know who he was. I think somewhere in there that desire to know who he was drew my attraction towards males, very strong. So I think from five years old, I always knew I had my mom. So I knew what a females love was like. I knew what a females’ affection felt like, but I always knew that I didn't have a male's affection and I always wanted it. I’m 47 now and I met Craig when I was 45. He’s my Pooh.”

CRAIG – “For me, it was different, and it's an amazing story because he fell in love with me at first sight. But for me, because of what I had gone through and what I had dealt with, I wasn't looking for love. I was strung out on drugs real, real bad, and I didn't want love. I thought I didn’t need it. Jermaine was just not taking no for an answer. He was telling me that I wasn’t who I thought I was at the time. Dealing with drugs at the time, and what I had dealt with growing up, I had made up this entirely different person on myself. I had become mean bitter angry. I had grown a hate toward God.

Jermaine told me, ‘CJ, you don't hate God. You don't hate God. You actually love him with all your heart, but you're afraid. You're scared because of what religion has taught you. Religion taught you that you can't love the same sex and love God too. You're going to hell.’

That's what religion tells you. And it's not any one church. It's just people and what they've been taught, and what’s been handed down. And I just, I couldn't fathom that an all loving, all seeing, all beautiful God, could condemn people because of their love. So when I met Jermaine, long story short, he loved the hate, the bitterness, the anger. He loved all that out of me. So, for him, it was love at first sight, but for me it was an unknown love that I grew into.

And it's the most amazing thing I've ever felt.”