This piece, written by a guy who has quit a world of extreme orthodox Judaism, is not really gay related (well, almost, there's one rather staggering bit about male on male oral sex). It is about his interactions with guys who are still stuck in that world, even though they want more than what it can offer.
And something about his interactions with them, and they way they both longed to get out, but coulnd't - along with their rather unrealistic expections of what getting out might be like - reminded me really strongly of so many conversations I've had with deeply closeted gay guys who are, in terms of feeling, in much the same space. These can be odd conversations because you are both strangers and yet the conversations can get astonishingly, even uncomfortable, revealing. Of course, they can do this because you are strangers and effectively will remain so, which is sort of depressing because it would seem to reinforce their inability to leave their closets. There is the momentary extreme openness combined with a larger lack of it at all. I realise that the extension of what I'm saying is to compare extreme religious beliefs and practices with general straight society, which doesn't seem quite right! But I guess the comparison is really to the kind of society that believes that for those born to it there can be only one way, their way, and no other is possible. http://www.salon.com/2012/04/19/the_sound_of_sin/singleton/
