i have posted a comment that i've made after several replies, maybe in the hopes of clarifying this.
"okay people.....maybe i didn't thread a little clearer. it is not about reading the national enquirer and believing what's in it. that's a fool's errand at best. and it's not about prejudice. this is a general observation that i've made throughout the years. so many people have something to hide. so many people in the public eye have been caught with their pants down. a lot of us keep our second lives hidden from others and for the most part, we all have good reason to do so. so i compiled a small list of all the things that other people have to hide and keep hidden in their lives for whatever reasons. i guess i am saying we are not alone in keeping secrets and some people have secrets that could create a lot of harm."
i've had this discussion with lots of different people. what brought this on today was reading the national enquirer and the story about sarah palin claiming she did cocaine, had an affair with a basketball player and so on. pretty much anyone in the public eye has a skeleton in the closet and i usually draw the same two conclusions.
1. who cares. (unless it harms, endangers or exploits women or children and then it makes me either very sad, angry or both.)
2. i'm not surprised.
i think it's a sign of the times, when i was a kid the thought was if you believe everything you hear, you're gullible. nowadays the thought is if you DON'T believe everything you hear your naive. so where am i going with this? well think about this. i don't have the exact numbers, it's not important but as far as demographics, percentages, segments of population and all that stuff that make up statistics consider this:
1. combined there is probably about 10% of the population that is bisexual, gay or lesbian and this does not include those that fall into smaller groups that are fetishists.
2. how many people do you think practice fetishes like s&m, d&s, swinging, practice polyamory, and a lot of stuff just too gross to mention here.
3. how many child predators that exploit children in a lot of vile ways, including incest, child prostitution, child pornography and the list goes on and on.
4. some people have legal issues, such as not being in this country legally, arrest warrants, convicted or at large criminals, embezzlers, cyber criminals, spies, members of organized crime families, drug dealers and the list goes on and on and on. a good number of these people could just disappear from the general population and either go into hiding, be murdered or sentenced to many years in prison if not life. who knows for sure what percentage of the population this is.
5. people with substance abuse problems, either drugs or alcohol, gambling or other addictive behaviors, and don't forget mental health issues, co-dependency enablers and things like that.
6. domestic and foreign terrorists living in this country who wish to do us harm.
who knows how many have come in from our porous borders and don't forget the hate and extremist groups.
7. i put this at the bottom of the list just because. there are a growing group of us who are crossdressers, either closeted or out, transgender, transvestite, and transexual. and who knows how many of us there are.
so after all this just two things.
1. look around at your neighbors, coworkers, family, friends, religious organizations. any groups you congregate with and just think, maybe wonder, who's doing what to who.
2. do we really need to live in fear of being found out? or is our group just one more drop in the bucket.