We are not the incarnation of Satan, and we do not appear out of thin air. We have parents and families, we have dreams and goals, and we have the same gods. You want to know what the "homosexual lifestyle" is? We get up every morning, we go to work, we come home, we eat dinner, maybe go to a movie, then we go to sleep. The conservatives need to get over themselves - they are not the only ones with "hum-drum" lives. The way we are talked about, you would think we start the day off by biting the head off of a chicken and then roam the streets all day looking for young children to molest.
Most of us are just like you. Unfortunately, the only gays people usually see are the drag queens and people dancing around naked on parade floats with leather whips. That is a true tragedy. Yes, I want my community to "push the envelope" and to challenge the norm, God knows if we were all conservatives, we would still be stuck in the 50's; however, there comes a point where society needs to see what the majority of us are like. The "heterosexual lifestyle" is never portrayed as being the red-light district downtown or transvestites. Why should the "homosexual lifestyle" thus be portrayed by only examining the "fringe" of our community. But you'll never see the gay professional who has been with his partner for decades and has done many humanitarian things for his society on the 700 Club.
So one of the best reasons to stop discrimination against gays and to allow them legal unions is that it is the right thing to do. To treat heterosexuals as a better class of people than homosexuals is just as evil as treating Anglos as superior to African-Americans. Orientation is a trait over which we have no choice just as skin color is.
Regardless of what Colin Powell may have said at the Republican Convention...the NAACP does not agree with his omission of gays from civil protections. Many African-Americans can recognize the seeds of prejudice when they see it, I don't know why Powell can't see the situation is the same. Race is a non-voluntary trait that is benign. Well so is sexual orientation...what's his point? Those who defended segregation did not think race was a benign trait, or does he not know his people's own history? Race was only seen as benign AFTER civil rights were forcibly imposed, and people could see that "Gee, I guess we were wrong."
Let's see if I can't undo some of the demonizing of gays...how about a listing of famous gays/bisexuals who have contributed to varying degrees to our society: