Quote Originally Posted by maxx68 View Post
And gaybucks_chip…the guy is hiding his porn stash and doesn’t come out for fear of hurting his family. Has it not occurred to anyone that he maybe shouldn’t have lied and gotten married in the first place? Maybe his family won’t be crushed finding out he’s gay, but they probably will be really hurt to know that their husband and father has been living a lie all his life.
Of COURSE he shouldn't have gotten married in the first place... but then again, (a) there are people of my generation (myself included) who were literally and genuinely clueless for a long time, and (b) there are also a lot of people who, absolutely genuinely, thought they could "change" and that if they got married, they'd eventually be able to love the person they married.

All I'm trying to say is... it isn't nearly as black-and-white as some may make it out to be. Today, every kid is exposed gay role models as well as gay stereotypes and so, at some level, probably every kid considers at some point whether or not they're gay. That wasn't true 40 years ago for the vast majority of people.

And once you've made the decision, had kids, etc... well, then it becomes a lot more complicated, and a lot more people are affected (potentially very negatively) by the decision of a closeted person to come out.

Now... all of that said, I absolutely agree that the shame associated with being gay needs to be eliminated, and that the more people come out and are honest to themselves and everyone else, the more society will become comfortable with gay people and the stigma associated will go away.

We're definitely moving in that direction. I'm amazed at how comfortable many of the kids 18 or 19 are, and how early they came out. We'll definitely get there, it just takes time.