Why do stereotypes suck so much? Because there are so many different types of people, if all you see is a stereotype then you may not give the real person a chance. And we shouldn't all have to be exactly the same, how boring would that be? I'm a leatherman with a mohawk, and I know gay men who are manly bears, effeminate queens, effeminate bears who drive trucks for a living, butch dykes, lipstick lesbians, guys who are very manly until they have a few beers then a purse falls out of their mouth, illiterate gay men (yes, I misspelled effeminate about 20 times in my last post), and many others. It's called DIVERSITY. Why be ashamed by it.

On the other hand. I know Mr. And Mrs. Straight Laced, hetero America (my parents) but I also know straight guys who lips and swish, are metrosexual, will be all manly but take it up the ass after a few drinks, paint their bodies and make total asses out of themselves at football games, butch straight women who love men but would put some bull dykes to shame with their use of power tools, strong willed businesswomen who would put any man in his place and many others. Should we consider these people to be an embarassment to the straight community. No, not at all. As different as all these people are they are all normal straight people. So why be ashamed that we have just as many diverse gay people?

And one last thing on the subject of leatherfolk. I think it's funny that gay people will rag on gay leathermen as making the community look bad when there are just as many, if not more, straight leatherfolk! The only difference is that we have already been through the stigma of being seen as freaks just for being gay so we may as well celebrate everything about ourselves by being ourselves in public, where as our straight brethren have to worry about losing jobs, having kids taken away from them and being ousted from their community. Sound familliar? Only through education about ourselves and our various types of lifestyles will people get to know us and no longer be afraid of us, which in turn will help calm the fires of violence and hatred.

In short, we need to stop hating ourselves before anyone else will stop hating us.