To my Gay Brother's and Sister's

I have been around gay people my whole life. My mother was a member of a gay choir in the early 80's and honestly, these wonderful people taught me how to be fabulous and it's due to their influence that I first really understood that not everyone was like me. Race didn't do it because I grew up in a world that was multicultural so seeing those who looked like me but were different was an eye opener. I learned not to fear differences but to embrace what they had to teach as did they. Not being gay myself, but loving many who are, I can never truly understand the hatred, discrimination and fear just being themselves engenders. It takes bravery being gay and it makes me so angry when it is called a life style choice. It is not a choice any more than being straight is a life style choice. The only choice is how you choose to live. Do you embrace who you are and live freely or do you hide? And it is sad that this choice can mean the difference between life or death. I still find it hard to believe that in 2011, being gay is controversial at all. That they still have to fight just to have the rights that being born an American should give you. I'm sorry, not being born an American, but being born a human being. Even though being gay has come so far since those who were arrested for it, or those ignorant sodomy laws or even Don't Ask Don't Tell, it still lives in a twilight world of almost being acceptable but not quite. We (at least the WE that the powers that be who dictate our tastes) don't want our action hero's or romantic leading men or women to be gay in real life. We, as the viewing public, are too stupid and can't separate fact from fiction (at least this meme must be believed so that granny in Missouri won't be offended or the good ol' boy in Georgia doesn't have to think of two men kissing, God forbid! ), so this means that many in Hollywood must hide. That public officials can still not be ridiculed into complete oblivion for their ridiculous statements (hello, Rick Santorum and man on dog sex but enough about his fantasies) tells me that we still have so far to go. Unlike race, those who are gay can hide if they so choose. There are whole institutions dedicated to getting the gay out. They promise that you too can be straight for God. If you just pray hard enough, it will all go away (See Marcus Bachmann for an example of this or Larry Craig, but I guess he's not a very good example). It is a choice after all. I don't know where I am going with this rant but I wanted to put my voice out there. There will come a time when we will look back on this as one more sad chapter of American history, like segregation, suffrage or slavery. I say that, because it is a civil rights issue. We all fight together for what we believe, which is equal rights for all, or we fail alone.