“I needed to find the gay boy, teenager, college student, and man I had always been, but didn’t know how to be.”

On the day of his sister’s funeral, while standing alone at her grave, Matt Bays tells the truth for the very first time: that he is gay. At 46 years old, and with a highly religious worldview, Matt sets out on a powerful journey to grapple with this new reality and find the part of himself that was buried in his youth.

Together, Bays and his dead sister take to the open road, listening to ‘80s music and lying under the stars at the Grand Canyon. Her prevailing love had once given him the courage to come out. And now, after the heartbreaking end of a relationship he thought would go the distance, he is searching for her guidance once again.

In Leather & Lace, you’ll be taken into the harrowing past of a young gay boy, ride shotgun to his hilarious first attempts at hookup apps, meet The Ambassador of Scruff, fall in love with the undeniably beautiful Oh Henry, and rediscover the hope of finding an authentic and meaningful love connection.

Much more than just another road trip memoir, this heartwarming story of love, loss, and redemption will strike at the part of you that longs to be loved exactly as you are…if only by yourself.

Matt Bays is a writer, speaker, and life coach with a passion for calling people out of their hiding places. He joins the ranks of writers such as Anne Lamott, Donald Miller, and Glennon Doyle in offering listeners honest, raw, funny, and insightful compassion for the journey of life. He and his husband, Chris, live in Cincinnati, Ohio.