Hey guys, this is B.T. Harman, and I'm the creator of Blue Babies Pink, a 44-Episode Southern Coming Out Story.
Awhile back, I told my story of growing up gay in the Christian south, one post per day for 44 days. Nearly 100,000 people have either read along (or listened) since then. It was an exciting, scary, healing, exhausting process, but I couldn't be more happy with how it turned out.
I've learned there are things that don't define us, but that are definitely in the definition of us. That's kind of how I view the gay thing. It's just a part.
There's a lot more to the story . . .
I’m 43 years old and live in Atlanta’s historic East Atlanta neighborhood.
But this show got started way back in Texas in the '80s . . .
I was born in Texas, the son of a Southern Baptist minister.
My mom eventually became a teacher, but she was equally as glorious back in the day...
Together...they were an unstoppable duo of '70s awesomeness . . .
Mom & dad had three boys—Brady, Brian, and Brett. I'm the baby . . .
The Trapp Five were s'cute! Love my family.
When I was around 6, we moved to north Alabama so dad could be the pastor at a church there.
Growing up, we took family vacations to the Southern Baptist Convention, which were more fun than you'd think.
As a teenager, I went to a tiny Christian high school where I played football . . .
And basketball . . .
After high school, I went to college and joined a fraternity. We weren't one of those bad fraternities though. Eventually became the fraternity president. Sometimes we dressed like pirates . . .
And loaded up the cars and drove 26 hours west to go skiing in Colorado . . .
And our fraternity won some awards for doing good things, not being stupid, and being as unstereotypically fraternity-ish as possible. Also, I gave a speech...
After graduating college I joined a fundraising start-up with only three employees. We helped schools do fundraising better. We grew it from $500K in revenue to almost $40 million. I eventually became a Vice President and led a team of creatives. Absolute best job ever, working with the best humans ever . . .
In August of 2016, I resigned my position to pursue a new calling. I was in corporate America for 11 1/2 years and loved every minute of it. I learned so much about myself and how to lead others. In fact, I spoke at a conference recently where I gave a crazy history lesson, talked about the worst boss ever, and described my incredible boss and how leading with Outrageous Care is a game-changer.
Today, I'm a consultant, writer, and speaker, living in Atlanta's historic East Atlanta neighborhood.
Random Nuggs . . .
I believe in the power of storytelling, leadership, good design, Seth Godin, SEC football, Chick-fil-A, Taylor Swift, world history, and C.S. Lewis.
My car is always dirty, I'm a slow reader. I hate oatmeal raisin cookies disguised to look like chocolate chip cookies.
I'm an INFP and 4w3 on the Enneagram.
I'm very proud of my Uber rider rating. I'm an aspiring minimalist. And I unashamedly smell the cologne pages in GQ.
My kryptonite is Pepsi, Auburn football, and bad spelling.
I believe that love can pulverize any hardened or dark thing. I'm a Jesus person.
I try—TRY—not to get too worked up about politics and, instead, try to spend my limited energy helping with several nonprofits I'm passionate about. I’ve served on the boards of directors for Beloved Atlanta, Legacy Collective, Alpha Tau Omega, and Refuge Coffee. I'm currently an advisor to Plywood People.
I'm really glad you're here. Stick around a while.
— B.T. Harman
Creator of Blue Babies Pink