Very fortunate growing up in Greenwich Village. Many gay neighbors and I used to cat sit for one gay couple when I was 12. My parents back then were very matter of fact about gays, but then my Aunt was a lesbian and raised my cousin with her partner.

I think it is a matter of you FEAR what you do not know. Also, the majority of gay people are not in the closet anymore and people see them all round them in their everyday lives. This is especially true with the younger generation.

I have a hard time feeling sorry for the religious right who feel so put upon. People no longer feel stigmatized by their bigotry and are free to be themselves, and that is a beautiful thing. They need to get over it.

I thought it was awesome.

Growing up, it just wasn't talked about. We had a couple living across the street who, in retrospect, I am sure were a life couple.

But my kids were exposed to GLBT people since birth and grew up thinking it was completely normal.

You are right about fear. It is those with no exposure (or no known exposure) that hold on to their prejudices.

that it has been religion, and no other social force, that has preached and fought against equal rights and treatment for homosexuals over the last 20 years (and further), both within their own religious communities and beyond. It is not religious faith or the tenets of their beliefs that have moved even liberal religious communities to greater acceptance of gays and lesbians, but continuing condemnation from outside, that has shamed and pressured them into doing what they should have been all along.

Religion has been the problem all along, never the solution.

need to read that story about Jesus healing the Centurion's "beloved youth. " And re-read it till it gets through.

How could the creator of all existence tell them to be against something 20 years ago, but now say it is okay?
Or were they wrong about what God or said? And if they were wrong, how do they know anything else is right?