It’s a big deal

I used to think: “During childhood we’re mostly androgynous, why can’t we just stay that way” . . . instead of all the silly behavioral and sartorial gender totems. But the divergence after puberty is a big deal.

I think some who go gay are essentially uncomfortable or diffident re: dealings with the opposite sex. No judgment implied. Those dealings are . . . special, charged, difficult, fraught, magnetic, preoccupying. Always controversial, endlessly fascinating, forever a source of gossip, rumor, folly, disputation, and trouble:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/philip-roth-blake-bailey-women-issues-misogyny/2021/04/23/f53f44ec-a37c-11eb-85fc-06664ff4489d_story.html