People have all sorts of ways of coming out - religion added into the mix almost never makes it better. I came out somewhat easier than some of my friends because for me - it was just who I was and I never would be good at hiding, plus I was already well on my way to rejecting religion altogether so the sin/god/burn in hell part did not cause me much concern. Telling my mother and father was challenging for me like it is for a good number of people. I was not disowned but my spouse was disowned and told she was going to burn in hell for eternity and so on. It is always scary because people you love might abandon you. My sibling has had a hell of a time - he hid and lied to himself and is still, 60 yrs later, wresting about it even knowing about me and that my life has, within reason, been not limited because of my orientation.

I came out in late high school/college in the 70s. It was a relief to know I could feel what others described - ways I never felt about men but I felt it for women. For me - it was I could either just accept it or I would have had to live half a life. That is what my sibling chose - for him it has been a 60 yr struggle to accept himself and not worry about what others say or think or think. When I came out, we were illegal, it had just stopped being in the dsm as a mental disease or defect, and people got beat up by straights a lot.

If, as I recall, the guy you knew was from texas or alabama or somewhere in the south - a book like this might give you some insight into southern coming out - Crooked Letter i: Coming Out in the South. Crooked Letter i

Often people who have chosen a faith - particularly southern evangelical backgrounds(fundamental protestants usually) have a very hard time with the whole it is a sin thing/burn in hell/if you just loved whichever god involved enough you would not act like that and so on. I know of 2 ministers who committed suicide over being lgbtq (one was the pastor of the church a good (gay) friend of mine went to and the whole congregation was upset by his death - his note talked about reconciling being a gay minister with the church stance).
Denying who you are, being unable to accept who you are, and trying to fit into some other identity set by society or your understanding of what makes one a good X (man, woman, religious thing, son, daughter, etc) -is not great for mental health.

Southern Queers: New Study Reveals the Reality of LGBTQ+ People in the South