In a recent interview with BuzzFeed News, author-activist Armistead Maupin says that coming out improved his life.

Maupin, who is currently promoting his tell-all memoir Logical Family, grew up attempting to please his white supremacist father and worked for Jessie Helms, a North Carolina politician known for his opposition to gay rights.

After landing in San Francisco, Maupin came out.

“I discovered the big lie that had been told to me about sex. That lie being 'suck a dick, go to hell.' That was so obviously wrong the minute I did it because I was thoroughly in heaven,” he said with a laugh. “It was just a huge relief to realize that all this nonsense, all this fear about being this thing, was for nothing.”

“Everything great in my life happened after I came out and wrote about it. I vowed to tell stories that would promote that idea,” he said.

In his memoir, Maupin lampoons Trump-supporting relatives.

“I'm not talking to members of my family who voted for him,” Maupin said. “I have nothing but contempt for anyone who makes an argument for that guy. We have a president who is rapidly dismantling the rights of trans people, insulting them to their face for having served their country. I don't think he believes in anything except himself.”