My first ever piece of self-expository writing, https://medium.com/p/7bdac6f1510e, a multifacted self portrait in the form of an essay, written in 2013 and published on Medium in 2020, contained this paragraph:

"Perhaps because I am not driven by sex, but by connection, is also why I am capable of platonic love of a woman. It seems that most people do not believe that such can exist because they are not capable of it. For me, the choice between no relationship because for whatever one or many reasons romance is not in the cards, or having that person in my life and deriving shared spiritual pleasure from each other’s non-romantic intimacy and company and connection, is a no-brainer in favor of the latter."