Do we have a chance to change attitudes toward gays?

[demgurl]

During the run up to elections it truly saddened me all of the scandals that came out about gay republicans. How sad it must be to not only live your life in secret but to vote to pass laws against yourself and to know that if your secret openly came out you would not have any friends in the work place any more. It must be tiring putting on the facade day after day.

While thinking about this I wondered if anything good could come of the scandals. I now hold hope that perhaps a Phoenix can rise from the ashes of ruined careers. I think we should all take this opportunity to put a face on the issue of being gay. People can relate more if someone they know represents what they fear or would not otherwise know.

I contend that if we need to act while everything is still fresh in people's minds. We could write LTTE's or talk to people we know who are Republican or anti-gay rights. We need to show them that people like Foley are the people who they came to respect and admire. This is a person they voted into office and who, even though he was gay, put his pant legs on one at a time (yeah, I can hear the jokes now - one leg at a time when the pages left his home - this is a serious moment, OK?) This is a normal human being who they had no idea about. He did not cause their divorce rates to go up. He did not turn his constituents gay. I do understand he did a lot of questionable things but this may be our one big hope to get through to people who we might otherwise not be able to reason with.

There is enough hate and oppression in society without taking out needless fears on gay people. I do not understand why they want to stop two loving people from being together. Things need to change at some point and from where I sit this may be our best chance to get through to some of these people. Somehow the bridge needs to be gapped and we need equal rights for everyone.