This was a very informative and enlightening read...if only because it crystallizes how diverse the LGBT community is.

I grew up in the same general time period as you, although maybe a few years younger? I loved Barbies and other "girls' toys," had absolutely no friends in school, and found myself rooting for women in TV plots or on game shows. However, my severe lack of early social skills was probably also due to the distinct intersection of being gay AND autistic.

Areas where I identified strongly with your experiences: being constantly bullied (including being mocked for my voice), being deficient (compared to other students) in athletics, and trying to convince myself I was bisexual by creating "crushes" on girls. There were very few Black students in my school district, so I'm not sure my classmates would have even gotten the "Lamar" reference...however, because I was considered very nerdy and everyone knew I excelled at academics, kids would call me "Steve Urkel" (even though I'm White, LOL!).

I also shared some of your gym class trepidations, but possibly for different reasons: although I was jealous that I didn't have the athletic abilities that so many of my classmates possessed, I also had this irrational fear that my clothes might get stolen by somebody while I was showering, or that someone might physically push me down in the showers because I was so disliked/unpopular. Again, that specific fear was likely due to the intersection of my homosexuality and my autism. I actually loved taking showers and seeing other boys naked (and being seen by them)...but that was during our 6th Grade year, when many boys haven't made the connection between erections and group nudity (tied to the possibility of classmates maybe being gay). Halfway through my 6th Grade year (1994), that's when our school district got onboard with the national trend of no longer making gym class showers mandatory...probably due to fear of lawsuits. As I gained weight while getting older, I became more frequently self-conscious of (but still open to) communal nudity in other settings.

Any romance in middle/high school was nonexistent for me; but, again, that can be attributed to my lack of social skills altogether. However, it has negatively affected my proclivity to try to find romantic relationships throughout adulthood. Also, my immediate family rarely went to church; but they are politically-conservative, so any discussion of people "being gay" was always framed as a deviant aberration, when they did talk about it.

My apologies for making my response too much "about me" -- I just find it extremely fascinating and empowering when LGBT people (especially other gay dudes) can compare and contrast our spectrum of individual experiences from growing up.