aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Monday, May 22, 2006

Confused is welcomed in GA

A friend sent this from home:

Dear Abby:

I have never written to you before, but after reading the letter from “Confused in Georgia,” the 23-year-old young man saying that he is gay, I felt compelled to respond. Your advice to him was great, but I would like to offer some of my own.

Like “Confused,” I am also a homosexual in south Georgia. Because he is having a difficult time with the church in which he was raised, my advice would be to run - don’t walk - from this “house of worship.” If attending church is important to him, then I suggest he visit the Episcopal Church, where I found solace and a warm and comforting family.

VALDOSTA, GA., reader

Dear Reader:

After that letter was published, I was inundated with mail from readers - gay and straight - from all over the country encouraging the writer to stop being afraid of rejection and to come out already. Read on for a sample from Georgia alone.