Sympathy is removed: When someone says “I feel sorry for you” or “That must be terrible,” they are standing at a safe distance. Rather than conveying the powerful “me too” of empathy, it communicates “not me,” then adds, “But I do feel sorry for you.”
I had a friend tell me he had a lot of sympathy for LGBTQ people, but it was impossible to have empathy because he didnt know what that struggle was like.
I dont think you need to be gay however to have empathy for someone who struggles with their sexuality. It is missing the point. Empathy comes from reconizing shared emotions, not shared experiences. People dont wnt you to feel sorry for them (sympathy), they dont want to define their experience from our past experiences, they want us to meet them where they are at EMOTIONALLY.
