Letter To My Asshat Of A Brother

[princealbertofb]

Ben... I know it can really be very very tricky being out there and on the front line with one's feelings. Your brother doesn't seem to deserve you. I hope he finds this and reads this... Are you going to point him (indirectly) to this thread???
Please, please, go and see someone, a shrink if necessary, so you can talk about all this to an uncritical ear. Your brother has indeed, no idea of how scary it all is and how close to the surface all of these feelings are.

I would like to say that maybe that's HIS way of coping with some news (the hot potato) that he finds difficult to deal with. Perhaps he is distressed, in some way, and prefers to joke about it to seem cool, when all around he's deeply scared about having a gay brother. Because what does it say about him? You know, it's that thing about feeling you had something to do with it (even if you didn't)... how parents feel that they've done wrong, or failed their kid, etc.
Or maybe he's just callous and unrefined, and you'll have to make do with it. I hope you two find common grounds, if not, just cut him out of your life and stick to those more sympathetic. It's a hard choice to make, but it might be necessary, for your own mental and emotional health.