A couple things jump out for me . . .

My brother is gay. I would classify him as "successfully" gay, as evidenced by the fact that he has been with the same man for over 50 years and is doing what he wants to do with his life. We weren't that close back when we were young: we went to different schools and we were just very different people. We are close now, but I have some remorse about our youth. I was oblivious to the pain he must have had to endure during those years. As his big brother, I could have at least protected him some. But I was too much about myself and my own standing among other kids.

Your article also takes me back to the year I spent in the gay world. I am straight, but there was a time when I was so exhausted and disgusted by the dating thing that I thought I might be gay. For a year, all my interactions and friends were gay. Once my friends started suggesting sex, I had to leave that world, but almost without exception, the men I met were intelligent, successful, kind, and generous. And they weren't afraid to talk about the things that hetero men had been brainwashed out of. I was more comfortable with those men than I have ever been with straight men.