Now the family shows up. The Peach is in his early ’40′s, and he feels like a girl who has eloped with her boyfriend without papa’s permission.

How would he know?  The only time he had anything to do with a girl, it was an utter fiasco. He got family permission to be gay — unlike his brother Karl, who did as he pleased. The Peach didn’t really need that permission; he rather set himself up to need it, because he thought he had to be what one member of his family wanted him to be.

He was  like those priests, dragged into the church at 14, with no idea how adults deal with sexuality.  He had no guidance, no role models, at least until between the wars, as an adult.  But as far as women were concerned, as a certain member of his family said — what a relief! — “You might as well be what you are; you can’t deal with women anyway!”  A negative relief, but at least he was off the hook.

Humans don’t do sex well alone; they’re part of a troop and they have to learn the rules.