Well said.

Somewhat related:
I did not have some of the normal initiation experiences during age-appropriate times either. I was not sexually active until about 19-20, which is fairly late (by about several years), and I attribute it to being freaking confused about sexuality due to sexual molestation by my dad when I was in my teens. I was just very confused and unsure of myself. I did have people aching to be boyfriends who were perfectly good candidates no problem, but I was just behaving very weirdly towards them and just being weird and having weird ideas overall. But eventually little by little it came to me and will come to you. You are in a much more difficult situation though because I am straight and it is always far easier to have the majority orientation. So you should not attribute all your difficulties with dating to the disease - part of it is due to the difficulty of being non-straight in this world.

I did not start smoking tobacco when my peers did because I did not want to become addicted - I hated my dad's chain-smoking throughout my childhood. I am very happy I did not start! Not every adolescent rite of passage is good for us!

No marijuana until late 30s, which, I know, is very weird, but eventually I will catch up and I have a bipolar friend, Joe, a lovely and very supportive guy, who will eventually (he is too busy) come to my apartment to rectify what he thinks is my lack of skills - I cannot smoke marijuana. I do not have the skill to smoke. He thinks he can teach me. OK, I will try. I will obviously not want do it on a regular basis - I do know that smoking marijuana is bad for the lungs - but at least I will acquire the skill that people usually acquire during teenage years. So I won't feel so inadequate .

No hard drugs but that is a good thing, as with smoking cigarettes. Again, missing out on some of the typical adolescent experiences is GOOD.

And I have never had a sex toy at 42, but eventually I will try them. So I am just having delayed initiation, but one way or another, I will catch up.