An interesting sideline

In college, pre-mission, life or fate if you prefer to call it that, threw a whole bunch of men together who just happened to be gay or hiding it well. I went to a small nice liberal arts school for a couple years. My first roommate was very much in the closet. Never went on a date, never had a girlfriend, and actively avoided a girl that was after him. He was thin, a little effeminate, but for some reason liked me, who was his personality opposite. I never understood that. He now lives in a very gay LA suburb, probably quite happily.

Across the hall from us were two other in the closet guys who were really good friends of my roommate. One was short, red-headed. He was more quiet, and wrote an anonymous letter to the campus paper to tell everyone he was there, and he heard our homophobic discussions. He set off a wave of "who is it" on that campus like you can't believe. He left the school after that year. I always wondered why he usually was semi-erect in the old room showers in our dorm. Once he left, the truth came out. His roommate, tall and blond, stayed in the closet much longer. Now lives in Chicago, out of the closet etc.

But they weren't the only ones. Choir, Band and Theater were common domiciles for them. One was vividly open, coming out his Sophomore year. The others were as a friend of mine calls them, "Gay but not gay." Meaning they just wouldn't come out of the closet at that point. I came to know most of them through a good friend who was quite an actor/singer. Surprisingly, he wasn't gay. He was hot, and had a body most of us would love to have. I had a bit of a man crush on him, but I didn't recognize it as that at the time. He of course attracted these guys (like me) and sort of knew they were gay. Some must have told him.

It seems odd that a college of 1200 people had so many people like me, and they were all sort of pushed together by dorm or activity. It was a comfortable place for them, definitely not BYU.