Personal reconciliation turns to action for two young leaders in Charlotte, N.C.

Paul Willoughby, a senior at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte (UNCC), remembers well the hardships cast upon him and his family when his twin brother came out of the closet.

"That was the worst time in my life, for real," Willoughby says of the summer between his junior and senior years in high school.

Unbeknownst to all but him, he, too, was gay -- a revelation he dared not disclose in the face of his parents' conservative, religious leanings and their treatment of his brother.

"My parents said a lot of mean things, calling [my brother] names they shouldn't be calling him," Willoughby recalls. "It was hard to see how my parents reacted to him coming out -- they even tried to send him to therapy to try to change him. Here I am -- I'm gay, too -- and I didn't know what to do. I was terrified that they would find out."

Now 21 years old, Willoughby is a member of the UNCC men's soccer team. Just last fall, he came out to friends on campus and to friends on his sports team.

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