A friend trapped in the closet

Thanks to my travels I am blessed to have friends all around the globe.  Yesterday, one of my friends in Egypt reached out to me.  For context he is an adult male in his lower thirties that I met in Egypt in 2017 and have kept in touch with ever since.  He told me that he had read my post (the one posted on June 1st) and asked permission to ask me some questions about it. 
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​I have included photos from the beginning of our conversation but blocked out some personal information.

"What is the lgbtq?" That question was the start of a long and personal conversation.  My friend knew very little about anything lgbtq related since it is not publicly talked about in Egypt and most information about it is blocked on the internet. The Egyptian government doesn't formally recognize the existence of lgbtq people and almost all Egyptians believe that homosexuality should not be accepted by society.  I thought my friend reached out to me because he wanted to understand me better, and I was happy to help with that.  He began asking me questions about my coming out journey and about the lgbtq community. Some of the questions he asked were really personal, but I answered them all anyways.  It never made me uncomfortable but at one point I did become curious about why he was so interested in all of this.  I worried that I would share information that would make him change his mind and no longer accept me.

After a while of asking questions he told me why he was asking.  Someone very close to him is gay and closeted, he is one of two people that knows.  He was asking me these questions so that he is better able to help and support him. He told me more details about this persons experience and I was able to give him more information on how to help and understand them.  I wish I could share more but the rest of the conversation was a lot more personal, maybe one day I will get permission to share more details.  I am so glad that my friend reached out to me and I was able to help educate him on this.

The reason I decided to post about this is because now that I know I have a personal connection to a lgbtq individual living in a country where homosexuality is illegal this topic has taken on a new type of importance to me.  It is so sad that there are people out there that don't have the opportunity to get to know themselves and be with who makes them happy. Instead they live their entire lives in fear, not only of being outed but also of being imprisoned or even killed if people find out.  I told him I hope that one day Egypt will become safe for him or he can go somewhere that he can be himself.  I told him about how our society was a lot less accepting of lgbtq people a few decades ago but that times have changed and people have became more accepting.  I hope that happens to his country and to other countries where homosexuality is still viewed as negatively. I am hopeful that I will see that in my lifetime.  

​I felt happy during that conversation while I was explaining things to him and listening to the stories about this persons experience, I was so glad I was able to help, but afterwards I started to feel so helpless.  I know that there are so many people struggling this way.  I want to help so badly but there is not a lot that I am able to do. I worry about my friend in Egypt, I was scared even having that conversation with him because if the wrong eyes read it things could go very badly. I wish I could do more to help him, but maybe one day I will, I at least want to try.