I often drop in for a quick visit to various addresses in the Blogosphere, including some conservative sites that take, on the whole, a decidedly unfavorable view of gays. I also have a few Facebook friends from my college days (I went to a conservative Catholic university) who espouse similar views. I haven’t unfriended them just because it’s useful for me to see what other people are saying, and it’s good spiritual discipline to try to love even those who seem to hate me (or at least a significant portion of my life).
It’s amusing to me how fraught virtually every discussion about homosexuality is on these sites. Just look at what Those Crazy Gays are sayin now. Culture and morality on the brink! Let’s all find something to be indignant about.
I believe that the very rhetorical energy and hyperbole that fuels these discussions creates a distorted impression of “The Homosexual Lifestyle” for the readers and commenters. Frankly, it’s all much more exciting and overwrought than my own Homosexual Lifestyle, which is, in most ways, as boring as most of theirs. I’ve worked in Government consulting. I was president of my very conservative neighborhood association. I pay taxes. I root for the LSU Tigers and New Orleans Saints. I adopt stray animals. I contribute to the upkeep of widows and orphans.
While it’s a fun place to visit, Bourbon Street north of St. Ann doesn’t define gay life any more than Bourbon Street south of St. Ann defines straight life.
