Dare To Ask Talk And News About Our Differences 
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I think there are two related issues that answer your question. One is perception. Because the assumption of heterosexuality is so common, it seems striking when one is faced with a gay person who is comfortable and open with his or her sexuality. The other issue is the differences in growing up for gays and straights. As gay people, we spend a much larger percent of our time trying to understand/hide/accept our sexuality, which straight people do not. This experience colors our politics, religious life and even entertainment choices, so it does seem like we’re ‘fixated’ on the topic.
User Detail :
Name : BillT, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Gay, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Recovering Catholic, Age : 35, City : Silver Spring, State : MD, Country : United States, Occupation : Health Care, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class,I couldn’t agree with you more that we should ‘get over it,’ but I don’t think it will happen in the near future, because of continuing racism in this country and elsewhere. ‘Race’ is a man-made concept, and is not scientifically supportable, but humans seem engineered to find differences among ourselves. The reality is that our society is still moving out of the ‘old’ world of predjudice, but it’s a very long process. The distinction between black and white took centuries to become engrained in society, and it will take at least a couple of generations until we are done with that work. Until then, it is important to celebrate every success that society (not ‘people of color’) makes in getting closer to a true meritocracy. The most important part of both Halle Berry and Denzel Washington’s wins was that I truly believe they were based on ‘traditional’ Academy thinking when awarding Oscars. It is rare that the ‘best’ performance wins (or that you can even define the best performance in a year). Usually winners are selected because the Academy wants to ‘reward’ a movie (e.g., Jim Broadbent in ‘Iris’), or because the actor (like Denzel W., or Al Pacino when he won) was ‘due’ for a win after losing out for better performances, or because an actor played a part that required them to be crippled or unattractive (like Daniel Day-Lewis in ‘My Left Foot’). The scuttlebut on entertainment web sites was that Halle’s performance really did knock people out, while Denzel was likely winning for ‘the Hurricane’ and ‘Malcom X’ as much as he was for ‘Training Day.’ When Hattie McDaniel won the first ever Oscar by an African-American, many believed it was as much a political thing for her ‘race’ as for her performance. If we have made progress, it is that most folks probably didn’t realize they were making history with their selections until the winners were announced; they were just going about their normal selection process.
User Detail :
Name : BillT, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Gay, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Recovering Catholic, Age : 35, City : Silver Spring, State : MD, Country : United States, Occupation : Health Care, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class,As a gay man and graduate of a ‘little Ivy’ college (Williams College), I think this is more a preppy thing that has been adopted by some gay men who have also adopted the preppy look. It is very common in preppy circles to wear clothing from any well-known school, kind of saying, ‘I could have gone here.’ This grows out of the phenomenon of students buying clothing from every school they visit or apply to.
User Detail :
Name : BillT, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Gay, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Recovering Catholic, Age : 35, City : Silver Spring, State : MD, Country : United States, Occupation : Health Care, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class,
