re: #23 Ryan King

You might have had friends who were gay and didn’t know it.

I’ve never been homophobic but I can’t take any credit for it. I grew up in San Francisco, and just saw regular gay people around when I was growing up. Gay cops, gay taxi cab drivers, gay butchers, gay guys walking their dogs together, gay guys getting into dumb arguments, lesbians necking in the park. It couldn’t have been more clear that they were just people.

There are a lot of individuals, like Harvey Milk, who did a lot to advance gay rights. But the biggest advancement of all has just come from the distributed effects of those brave gay guys and women living their lives openly. To change a mind already made up takes extraordinary effort; for kids to learn that gay people are fine just takes growing up seeing gay people living normal lives.