Do you actualy believe it’s okay to fire (or not hire) someone for being black? For being a woman? For being gay? A Jew?

I sure as heck wouldn’t want to live in such a world, and it sure as heck ain’t the United States of America. Sounds like you want to extinguish the ‘lamp beside the golden door’, not lift it up.

Re: “IF OBAMA WANTS OUR VOTES …” etc., here’s a hint – if you’re just going to YELL (ALL CAPS = YELLING), no one’s going to listen to you, not matter how cogent your argument.

Meanwhile, you keep on Obama-bashing, but you neglect to address McCain’s policy. Are you saying McCain/Palin is a positive alternative? If so, I think yer nuts. As for the Libertarians, etc. everyone with half a brain knows they aren’t going to be elected, even if that displeases you, so why waste the vote?

As for your “10 seconds (oops, 10 SECONDS) suggestion, yes it could help to hear it. It could also be the 10 seconds that destroys any chance any politician might have had at ever becoming President. Misunderestimate the power of the religious reich in America at your peril. They LOVE Palin and would/will come out in droves to see the possibility of a “Christian in the White House” (TM) made real in our lifetime. Call it Armageddon/the Final Judgement/End Times – whatever. And they don’t really like Mr. McCain all that well – most of them still remember when he called them agents of intolerance, and bullets are cheap in America. So if you think we gay people should vote for Mr. McCain and Mrs Palin, be very, very careful of what you ask for.

And here’s a compllimentary clue for Trace, who said, “I would far more trust a Barr Presidency than an Obama Presidency.”

Yeah. Right. A Barr Presidency. Like that’s gonna happen, Trace.

Your alter ego, Wayne, keeps typing what you type – “Just within a couple months, we have seen Obama tell us that we do not deserve the same rights as a straight person and that he has backtracked on stances of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” You both completely fail to address what it is MCain and Palin are saying about us. They are the people who, if Obama is not elected, will be in the White House. And what they say is 180 dgrees the opposite to any progress gay Americans could possibly stand to make under an Obama presidency. McCain is on record of saying just how proud he is of his anti-gay stance. And you two would have us support THEM? Like I said, that’s just nutz.

Biden said in the debate that our rights and freedoms are guaranteed in the Constitution; McCain/Palin want to change that Constitution so that they never are again.

You ask, “what really makes you think that Obama is going to do anything for the gay community.” Well, what makes YOU think McCin and/or Palin would?

You ask, “What are you going to say in 4 years when the man has done nothing in support of the community?”

OTOH, we cold well be asking YOU what YOU are going to say in 4 years about a man (or possibly a woman) who did much to diminish our community. They’re on record saying they will; Obama is simply hesitant to say the full monty until after he is safely (?) in the White House.To use Wayne’s words, you seem more interested in getting McCain/Palin elected than you are in furhering gay rights. That’s pathetic.

Basically, you’ve interpreted your experience as having an unseen intelligence behind it which was working in your favor. The problem with that interpretation is that the favorable outcome can be explained just as well by a combination of chance, your own efforts, and your own background. No evidence one way or another. But, objectively, couldn’t the outcome have easily been quite the opposite, as it is for many who are discriminated against?

“I have the option of terminating my employment for any reason so why is it not fair game the other way?”

That sounds to me like rationalization in the face of dealing with a situation you had no power to control. You would have had power to do something about it if laws protecting gays from discrimination were in place. Why are you concerned with “fairness” the other way, towards someone who basically tried to harm you? Since the employer who fired you was not fair towards you, why does that employer deserve fairness in return? As I’ve said before, you’re letting yourself be a victim of libertarian ideology, instead of putting your personal interests first. That’s odd to me, because I always heard that conservatives place a high value on self-interest first.

Sex is easy, dates are more difficult and dates with people that are not crazy is next to impossible!

Things happen for a reason and I look back that it was just the kick in the butt that I needed.

I now work for a company that has received a perfect score on gay issues. My work is respected and I put forth more than what is expected of me.

As I see it, I have the option of terminating my employment for any reason so why is it not fair game the other way?

But, I don’t want others to have protections for arbitrary reasons: religion, sex, race, etc

A level playing field. That’s such a nice sounding ideal. It reminds me of the ideals surrounding deregulation. Take away all of those unnecessary rules and everyone will play nice and everyone will benefit. Trouble is, that’s not the real world.

Your own experience of being a target of prejudice should tell you that, unless laws exist to enforce fair and equal treatment of gays, there is no level playing field for us.

In addition, arguments against laws protecting certain classes and in favor of a supposed level playing field usually come from those who believe that such laws favor someone else over them, usually someone they consider to be less deserving. But that wasn’t your situation. You were arbitrarily dismissed, not because such laws favor someone else, but because you are not included under such laws, and yet obviously should be.

It seems to me that you’ve let libertarian ideology trump your own common sense and personal interests.

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JohnM, that’s your idea of Obama showing leadership on gay rights. He FAILED to even get a non-discrimination bill passed in the SEVEN YEARS of his being in the State Senate, and then only after Obama leaves, THEN THEY ARE ABLE TO PASS THE BILL. And you actually are singing Obama’s praises for this?