furthering the gay agenda
I'm all about gay rights. I do think it gets taken too far on occasion, I don't go for special, affirmative-action style benefits-rights for someone based on their sexual orientation, but I don't think that gay people should be discriminated against either professionally or personally. I have gay friends, and while I may get a bit freaked out if they start making out in front of me, it is only marginally moreso than I would if my straight friends started making out in front of me.

I do wish that the gay lobby could be taken seriously in this country, I think it would help solve alot of social issues. But if gay people want to have a voice and make inroads, doing everything they can to emphasize their differance, to create artificial differances, and to make themselves appear a freakish minority is not a good way to go.

To whit:

This does not help. Imagine you are a businessman hiring for a job, and the gentleman above is what sits down at the desk across from you. Or you're a steel worker, and this guy sits next to you at the bar. Or you are any relatively straightedge individual and this is the photo on the cover of your morning newspaper.

All I'm saying is, if the gay lobby wants to be taken seriously, this isn't the way to go. That photograph above is currently, and unfortunatly, the face of the gay lobby for an awful lot of people. When people hear the word "Gay Man", that image, or something similar, is what jumps to mind. Do you want those people taking care of kids? Or getting married? Or taking a serious job? Well, in reality, the person in that picture is probably just fine for any of the above. But he dosen't look it there. He looks like someone who will be in the papers again in six months for child molestation, for chrissakes.

I know that there are alot of people, who are gay. But the emphasis should be on the word "People", not on the word "Gay". The road to acceptance is through showing humanity, not through forcing differances. Really, the way to go is by making sexual orientation trivial, not primary. Make the commonalities primary, and the differances will be accepted. The opposite option simply breeds resentment and forces the wedge between "Us" and "Them".

Of course, this is due largely to the media. The media, by nature, goes for the freaks and tries to shove acceptance down people's throats. As an example, a letter from a gay man who attended the parade responding to the same pic, printed in the PG's letters:

A slap in the face
Why does the Post-Gazette focus on what most people perceive as weird? Even as a gay male who attended the festival, I think drag queens are weird and they do not represent me.

The photo showed drag queens with insulting signs and looks. Ninety-nine percent of the gay population are not drag queens, and most of us do not operate on "Gay Standard Time" or "drag queen time." Yet that's what some of people interviewed said.

I also take exception to the quote, "The people you see in the bars, now you get to see them out in the daylight!" Probably 80 percent of the crowd at the PrideFest parade do not go to gay bars. Most gay Pittsburghers, like most other Pittsburghers, live happy and productive lives and don't have time to haunt gay bars.

Did the Post-Gazette not see parents walking to support their children and friends; Presbyterians, Buddhists, members of the United Church of Christ and many other religious organizations; softball and volleyball leagues; the American Civil Liberties Union; and the Renaissance City Choirs? No, all the PG seemed to notice was that it was "thick with baby strollers and drag queens, little dogs and leather dudes."

Ironically, the PG missed the big picture -- the invisible gay and lesbian community -- probably because we look just like you!

KIRT M. KLEINER
O'Hara

This guy should be made president of whatever gay organiazation is in charge here in Pittsburgh. I'm glad he wrote the letter, because his mindset does more for the local gay movement than piles of stories on gay parades, and in some ways repairs the damage they have caused.  ¶ 1:57 AM