In my neighborhood, that seems to consist of working, paying taxes, and doing yard work on the weekends.

How radical can you get?

guy told him that when gay men act or walk or sound gayish, (whatever that means), they are doing it on purpose, they are purposely upping the affectations because they can now get away with it when in the past they couldnt.

I asked him if he and his buddy acted more masculine and tough around certain people and why is that any different.

Then I asked him what would he do if 95% of the public shamed him and attacked him when he acted like himself.

He didnt get it, yet.

Usually I would write a person like this off but he is worth saving.

I've had even supposedly supportive colleagues cringe and halt my discourse for even the most casual mention of something my ex and I did last night (going to the movies!). It turned the whole conversation into how restrictive that sort of allusive conversation stopper wouldn't be tolerated by the same from her mention of an equally polite activity with her other half, why has this offended her?
Good comeback to that, BTW. I've certainly overheard even one of the most "pious" christian men I know turn into a sexist pig, accentuating a deep voiced "macho-up" attitude when faced with a locker-room comment from another pig making sexist remarks about a female. I just kept attention to my work, but it was disturbing.
This all makes decades-old Kinsey research all that much more telling on the sort. I'm getting "there's no such thing as homophobia" from some RW'er's as well, a semantics argument, but their justifications for that include homophobic rants they don't possess the empathic ability to fathom the inappropriateness unless the tables are turned, then they just go nutzoid. It's the same sort who would have considerable penile girth spikes upon viewing nude males, but overcompensate the heterosexism in public.

how sick the conversation is, period. (because I cant remember how he phrased it, probably derogatorily like in your face and unnecessary over the top blah blah blah)


Years ago someone close to me said she was OK with gay people as long as they didnt shove it in her face.

WHOA I said, I said are you OK when your son and his girlfriend kiss in public?

In a very short amount of time she came to see the light and I give her credit because she came from a typical small town, white area where there were only whites and nobody was gay that they knew of, etc. no tolerance of brown or gay etc

ALL straight people have evolved to one degree or another on accepting gay people, I think.

Nobody had it right from the get go, nobody I know anyway.

But I hope I am wrong about that

My parents moved me to a redneck town about halfway through my childhood. It was a devastating event. Long story short, I ran away to save my very skin. The master of hate himself Fred Phelps and his zombie-relatives that lived there were involved in a veritable "lynching"... or at least the threat of it if I didn't disappear.
I've never returned, never intend to. I've had one solitary schoolmate who contacted me through facebook with apologies for how horribly I was treated in that town back then.
Perhaps it has something to do with my activism these days.