Teens wants dating

As futbol said, being treated differently sucks. Which is precisely why I find "shows of support" patronizing. It suggests that the person is hanging out with me because they feel sorry for me, or are using me to get moral validation, or are someone going out of their way or ordinary routine to attend to my needs. Now, it's one thing if a friend provides a show of support when I am specifiy in need, but for a stranger to do it based on some sort of amorphous ideological position has nothing to do with me as a person. It's a token, white -'s burden and all. But my request is that I be treated with the same level of respect and expectation of my abilities, not as a clone. That requires a recognition of what makes me different. The fact that people felt the need to point out that I do not speak for the whole community is sad to me really? Did the really think I speak for the whole community? Did the sockpuppet who made that comment? If so, then, yes, I should probably engage in this discussion pointing out that we are all individuals. That's the tricky part. I think what it comes down to is that I want to be treated as an equal, but equal does not necessarily mean *same*. So showing up in a bar to party down is positive insofar as it shows that someone feel gays are equal and/or not something to be avoided, but it is insulting insofar as it also assumes that they are (or can be) just like the dominant culture and it attempts to erase the differences between people. Think about it. It assumes that all bars are interchangable, that there is nothing different between a straight bar or a bar, that going into one should be identical to going into another, not just in terms of experience, but also in terms of meaning. But they do not mean the same thing. My life or my bar does not have to look and work the same as another one to be equal. It does not have to be open to everyone to be equal. That the dominant culture wants to partake of all subcultures while itself being and threatening enough to shut the subcultures out of itself is not equal. There is nothing balanced about that equation.