>>But notice that you're not talking about gay accountants or lawyers or doctors or ..., and you're not talking about women at all. 40 or 50 years ago, for most people, if they knew or knew of someone who was gay, that person was in the arts because in the arts, it was safe to be gay and out (well, at least for some--can't help but think about Rock Hudson, who had to hide his sexuality to be a movie star). And, of course, it's only in the last few years, that you can be gay and serve in the US military.
>
>What do you mean "it was safe to be gay?"
>

I mean that in those fields, being gay didn't automatically keep you from working. Being found out to be gay didn't get you fired.

>Let's talk about Rock Hudson ( a Fitzgerald, by the way.)
>
>Do you mean that if hadn't pretended to be something that he wasn't (a heterosexual man) that he would have had to get a real job?
>Do you mean that if women had known that he was gay, it would have seemed ridiculous for him to be whispering pillow talk with Doris Day?
>Well, guess what.. it would have and it still would.
>Choices have consequences.
>

I'll start at the end. Everything we know says being gay isn't a choice. If it were, then most of us would know when we chose to be straight. Can't speak for you, but I sure don't remember ever making such a choice; I just was and am straight. When did you choose to be straight?

As for Hudson, I mean that had he been openly gay, he wouldn't have been cast in the parts he was. I challenge your classification of acting as not a "real job."

Today, we seem to be better at accepting that people's sexuality doesn't mean they can't play roles with a different sexuality.


>And, while we're on the subject- I'm sorry about anyone who dies unnecessarily, but I'm a little annoyed at people when people are diefied because they died from aids.
>Al Capone died from syphillis. Does that make him some kind of saint?

I don't know who's deifying Rock Hudson. Ryan White, yeah, he was a hero. So was the reporter whose name escapes me who came out and wrote about his battle with AIDS fairly early on.

Tamar