now I feel like crying
I know it sounds like a cliché, but things will get better, I went through a somewhat similar experience as you, although with probably less pain as I didn't have to deal with some of what you have faced.

Once you get away from local school and small towns a whole world can open up. If you go to uni, try to pick one where there are people with similar interests. At least in the states, there are a lot of women's support groups in universities where people will open their arms to you instead of what you have faced before. It won't be easy, but it will be better and get easier as time goes by. Your posts show you to be an incredibly smart, interesting, irreverent, inventive, and sensitive person with a huge amount to offer the world.

Would it be possible to go to school in a different, possibly more open country or at least a more liberal city if there is such a thing in Australia? Don’t give up, you have too much to offer.
(MichaelS wasn't picked again, Wed 13 May 2009, 18:34, Reply)