I still read comments in the newspaper online saying things like "For people who say they just want to be accepted, they sure do expect a lot of attention just 'cause they're gay".
Well, yeah. That's not for us, that's for everybody else.
When you look at someone, you can almost always tell whether they're an ethnic minority or a woman.
So, you're young and black, or Asian, or of any other ethnicity, discriminated against in your community. Who are your role models going to be? Successful, hardworking people of that ethnicity. Obama, Oprah, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., or many others.
Or, you're young and female, and told that women aren't as good as men. Now who do you look up to? Hillary Clinton? Oprah fits here, too. Or maybe you remember some early feminists from long ago.
Now, what if you're young and gay? Bisexual? Transgender?
If we all keep quiet about our sexuality, because it's so not a big deal, who are the kids for whom is is a big deal going to look up to? If the politicians, the performers, the writers, those in the spotlight, keep quiet, what does that say to the kid in a small town where everybody knows everybody and gay is a dirty word?
It says you have to hide. It says there's nobody else like you.
Oprah never had to say, "Guess what? I'm a woman." Everybody knows that. All you have to do is look at her, or read about her, to know that.
Being gay isn't like that. It doesn't always show on the surface.
That's why we make a fuss.
