Not "Devalued". A solid
piece by columnist Rex Wockner on planetout.com describes why he
doesn't buy into gay victimhood. In defending Rosie O"Donnell's
comment that she has never felt discriminated against for being (as
she calls herself) a gay woman, Rex writes:
"I have a theory that people who expect to experience discrimination may encounter more of it. I have gay and transgender acquaintances who seem to get discriminated against almost weekly. On the other hand, those of us who view our homosexuality as perfectly normal, and don't make it into an hysterical elephant in the living room, maybe end up having that reality reflected back at us by most people who figure out we're gay."
In a follow-up
piece, Rex responds as follows to a well-intentioned activist
who was quick to point up all the legal rights that gay people are
still denied:
"[W]hile I am wholly uninterested in walking around feeling "devalued" (because I don't have any feelings like that at all, especially vis-"-vis society, as opposed to the government), I promise to continue, as I always have, to argue in favor of access to plain old marriage for same-sex couples.
Seems a sensible plan to me.