despairing and not knowing where to get 'true and realistic' help (not the help the bible thumpers offer). A lot of what young kids hear is a constant barrage of how wrong this lifestyle is, the hate, the bigotry, etc.
Of course most of us know our lifestyle is not the evil that others seem to make it (all fake and distorted and far from reality and the truth). It's not. It's families, spouses, children (fostered or from prior straight marriages, etc.), with homes, with jobs, with friends, in short, what everyone else has in the 'normal' straight world. If you put both worlds side by side, oftentimes you would have difficulty in picking which world it was you were picking, should you attempt to pick which world was what.
Those coming out face a whole world of bigotry and hate, in full view and I've known too many 18 year olds getting kicked out of their homes because they came out. Some have reconciled, others have not. The community does extend its hand out in comfort and aid all across the country on a daily basis...you just don't hear about it. Maybe that's why the bookstore story is so real to people, for we have all seen this story already.