[sneezyone]

Originally Posted by FH-redhedded

His experience was one of being raised in his very southern religious household where compliance was more important than anything, including having a voice. He is intelligent, highly creative, loving, open, kind and sensitive and gay; his parents were inflexible, often disapproving of his free spirit, critical, often unaffectionate and uncommunicative. His childhood was so hard; he felt alone, alienated, insecure, unsupported then of course had to decide to severe his family ties because of the pain they caused him. So. . . I always, in the back of my mind, know that being with those who gave birth to you, being with those who "resemble" you does not guarantee that you do not feel deep and great loss.

That is an important loss, Red. But I'll betcha the man you mentioned can find people who've experienced similar losses among other members of the gay community and be accepted there. Those who lose their connection to their ethnic culture may never find acceptance among their ethnic peers and/or may have a very difficult time achieving it and that is a group with which they are quite visibly aligned.