One of the things I do is write for a local gay newsletter. I’m their youth columnist. Every once and awhile I will get a letter from someone commenting on the column or what have you, and the other day I recieved a letter from a girl who said that she was a freshman at my former high school and that she was struggling with her lesbianism.
I wrote her back, and we exchanged several more letters. I told her that I would email some of my hs friends who were gay to get into contact with her. I didn’t give her any names, and now I’m glad that I didn’t.
Apparently, the girl doesn’t exist. At least there’s no one by that name at my school. Now, this leaves several options:
A)This girl has made up an identity because she is scared to tell her real name.
B)This girl has made up an identity because she is an idiot trying to find gay people to hunt down.
C)This girl goes to another Cape. Like Cape May or something like that.
D)This girl does not and never has existed, and I am receiving email from nowhere.
E)Someone I know is playing a disturbing joke on me.
F)This girl is from another dimension.
G)She is invisible- yet is actually in Band, Choir, and the Thespians even though no one really knows that she is there.
(I) Somebody at the school newspaper is doing some kind of investigative work for a feature article, and not only has used a pseudonym but has also constructed a background involving Band, Choir, and Thespians.
(Not exactly the kind of thing I’d think was ethical at the high school level, but times may have changed since I was in school.)
But I have to say that rmariamp’s advice is worth following. And don’t send any more information to this person until she has satisfactorily answered the question.
I know what you mean Andygirl. Being one of the few out people in Highschool made it even more apparent. I had closet queens do things similar to that to try to find someone that they could a) have sex with b) Hi Opal c) meet other gay people or d) just to have it a little easier when coming out.
Don’t ever give names of people whom you know are gay to someone you don’t know especially in high school. High school is not like the real world. Highschoolers from my experience tend to be a lot more vicious and meanspirited than the average adult. The best course of action you have is to find a support group for her or even just a phone number for a counselor or someone trained to talk about sexuality issues (which can also be free). I don’t know about your town really but their is probably at least one counselor who is willing to talk to her about her orientation (assuming she is telling the truth) and probably a support group around too. If you find a support group (the gay yellow pages or Damron’s guide are a good place to start a search) suggest that she go there. She will meet other like-minded individuals and you will not expose her to anyone whom she could possibly harm if she is lying. A support group takes a lot of courage to join because one has to admit that one is different from the norm to be willing to go into one and in this specific case it is probably the best way to go as it offers a safe place to be for herself and others. Not many people are like us Andygirl, since we both came out in high school and are pretty open about it.