Quote Originally Posted by Badtranny View Post
Do they have less to lose? Perhaps, but the desire to live is greater than the desire to hide, sometimes to the great detriment of the courageous. Sometimes being courageous is indistinguishable from being a martyr.
My point is that sometimes there are dependents involved, and in some cases, how much right do we really have to affect their lives so that we feel better about ourselves? This is not an easy calculus, and will vary from situation to situation. Even if you don't much care what happens to yourself, the idea of hurting your family is awful for many.

Not true and this is the root of the problem. If every CD were to simply begin defending other people's right to express themselves to their conservative friends instead of just joining in with the trash talking then that alone could effect huge change. How about "Oh, they're not any different than us, they're just regular people who like different things". How is saying something like that outing yourself?

You know back in the '60s there was only one thing lower than a ni**er down in the south, and that was a ni**er lover. People were reluctant to show support for integration among their friends for fear that they would be called that name. So if you can't be honest as a CD, can you at least be a CD lover? Can't you at least support other people for having the courage to dance to their own drum? What's wrong with being openly accepting of other lifestyles? Are you afraid people might think you were open minded and compassionate?
I can agree with this wholeheartedly. This is an excellent point. Sometimes it seems the path is "all or nothing." But you are right, there are other ways, and I think a lot of times while the initial spade work may be done by people who are very courageous and take a lot personal risk, the foundation of opinion gets laid more quietly, when regular folks just begin to understand "yeah, ok, that's NOT right the way those folks are being treated."