Hey thanks. I wonder if, Instead of saying to me "I think you’re choosing the wrong angle to interpret how it shaped his music"—could you note a different interpretive model occurred to you and you'd like to share it?

I'm still not seeing mention that "Love of Another Kind" was initially sung to a man. A different lyric is on view in two performances from the 1980s on Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fXG3soGtAA&list=RD9fXG3soGtAA&start_radio=1

Amy Grant had sung: “The love I know is a love so few discover.” His version had: “I feel you’re closer than a brother.” I'd suggest listening to the song with this idea: he is advancing a gay liberationist perspective which pushes back against prevailing Evangelical ideas that gay relationships are tortured, brief, uncaring. See if that works?

I don't see any evidence of the existence of a girlfriend. I'll keep looking, keeping in mind his story is that the relationship was troubled and she broke up with him after lots of hesitation—so even that indicates a problem that is significant, but subtle.