Russian Paul asked “I guess you like to stay in your “comfortable home” while others fight your fight for you?”

DAMNED RIGHT. I’m now 70. All through much of the 1970s and 1980s I was front and center in the gay rights battle - walking the protests and talking them too on the air, in the newspapers and in person. I listened to and fought similar ABUSE spewing from similar IGNORANT LOUD-MOUTHED BIGOTS then as gays and lesbians experience today.

However, many things have changed enormously in that so much more support is now coming from INTELLIGENT, THINKING “straights” who have somehow overcome the brainwashing of their religions and right-wing “leaders” to realize that (1) sexual orientation is NOT a choice and, (2) gays and lesbians have every right to access and enjoy the benefits of a pluralistic and democratic society as anyone else and (3) MOST gays and lesbians lead lives that are indistinguishable from those lead by straights.

Strident demands from gays/lesbians for “equal rights” (marriage) terrify and infuriate the straights who cannot shake their cultural conditioning and religious teachings. One by one the states and countries are “granting” equal rights of marriage.

While I’m on the soapbox, I just might take a little poke at some of the antics displayed on Gay Pride days. I’ve watched and winced as “Dykes on Bikes” roared down Main Street, bare breasted, confirming what many ordinary citizens already believed - “what a bunch of weirdos.”

Then come the floats decorated with almost or completely naked males, flaunting their genitalia confirming what many conventional citizens already believe - that most gays spend their lives participating in sexual marathons.

Then we have the circus of bearded males in dresses acting in some fashion that emulates neither gender. Back to “weirdos.” How is anyone supposed to “relate” to that spectacle? I’m gay but I can assure you that I do not appreciate being considered as the same in any way as these folk.

I’m sorry… but you can’t display as weird and alien IN PUBLIC, flaunting every value “they” take seriously, and expect your demands for “equality” to be given the time of day.

There is SO MUCH WONDERFUL about the lives and loves enjoyed by gays and lesbians. It is beyond me why the emphasis isn’t put on the 95% of HOW MUCH WE ARE THE SAME instead of the 5% of HOW COMPLETELY DIFFERENT WE ARE. You ought to get down on your knees and THANK those straights who are “fighting our fight for us” because some of our “own people” aren’t doing a hell of a lot for our “cause.”

grumpyhomophobe - We are citing the civil rights movement because we were a part of it. If you truly understood that moment, then you would be supporting equality for all people, not just where it suits you.

By the way, African-American music month would be more accurate since slavery forced the mixing of European and African influences to create almost all forms of modern music. I appreciate this, and listen to “black music” every single month. Everyone does whither they know it or not.

RAE - no one cares if you get married or not, that (should be) your choice. But under the law, a gay man is seen as unequal to a straight man. Prop 8 hypothetically opened the door for people to vote and outlaw any personal freedom, so this isn’t just about gay marriage. I don’t care to get married either, but your view is just selfish and nearsighted, equal rights are not something to be so casually dismissed. I guess you like to stay in your “comfortable home” while others fight your fight for you?

Russian Paul wrote: “We don’t care about a stupid month, we want equal rights.”

I watch the heteros “enjoying” their rights and am SO thankful I’m not one of them.

It’s graduation time and the newspapers are full of pictures of eager, smiling teenagers about to join the adult world. Within a few years 90% of those smiling faces will be doing exactly the same thing… getting “married” (much of time so each of them has a steady source of sex) - pumping out the kids - piling on the debt by the hundreds of thousands of dollars for mortgages and all the other “necessities” of modern urban life (consume, consume, consume)... stuck in jobs they HATE (which are eating up the best part of their lives) to meet the bills… and feeling OH SO TRAPPED! (And these days they’ll be lucky if they don’t lose it all to those incompetents in charge of the economy.)

If this is EQUALITY then the heteros and all those gays and lesbians who mindlessly need to ape the hetero lifestyle model… CAN HAVE IT.

I’ll just enjoy my INequality in peace and quiet and comfort… just me and my partner, our cat and our modest but comfortable home on 6 acres in the country where we grow most of our own food and maintain ourselves with as little interfacing with the mania that is the “norm” as is possible. We have absolutely no need whatsoever of “marriage” - we’ve been together for over 30 years BECAUSE WE WANT TO BE TOGETHER not because we have to be together. That doesn’t seem to be the case with the VAST MAJORITY of hetero married couples.

No thanks to “equal rights” for us. All we ask is to be left alone.

Isn’t this pride.barrackobama.com false advertising?

What has he done to help gays or lesbians? Oh right he’s too busy taking his wife to NYC, placing bets on sports, kissing the Saudi King’s ring, fundraising, attending meetings, finding a family dog and bailing out Wall Street thieves.

Got it.

This “Obama Pride” campaign is and always has been bogus and contradictory. You can’t support gay rights unless you support equality under the law, which means gay marriage. We don’t care about a stupid month, we want equal rights.