What is a Homosexual?

Sullivan actually put a clear thesis at the end of his story. I understood what he was trying to explain throughout his piece, but it never quite jumped out at me what the purpose was. I grasped the story was about his personal challenges growing up as a Homosexual male in a crowd he never completely fit into. He tied the essay together with a thought provoking thesis that has the power to make one think about the world around them and the people that are surrounding that person.
The story also made me think that sometimes what you see is not what you get. Is anyone really an open book or are we all trying to hide something from others? Maybe we are even hiding things from ourselves that, we ourselves, are offended by. I would argue that Sullivan is not just saying that Homosexual youth have an extremely hard time in their adolescent years, but rather that he is singling out that particular group for a few reasons. The first being very obvious; He is a Gay man and had to put up those facades to survive those tumultuous years. The second reason being there is more ridicule and torment used against young men that are openly gay in our schools than those that put up their walls and act like nothing is happening.
I started thinking back to when I was in high school. I found out years later that a friend of mine was "in the closet" so to speak. He went through these phases of trying to fit in. He played football, did the weight lifting classes, and also took girls to the school dances and bragged about how much tail he chased. What we had all found out about him was that he was taking girls out and all that, but was not trying to do the same things the rest of us guys were trying to do with the girls. They were going to the movies or gossiping or doing girl things. The girls I knew that were "seeing" him all kept his secret far from the rest of us in the group. I don't know if it really would have bothered me then, but now the only thing that unnerves me is that he couldn't be himself around his friends. He is still keeping his act up for his family. He was married to his best girl friend and they have an open relation to fool his mother. It really in a sad story.