Which is it? You either believe in the first amendment for all, or you believe in it for none. I’ve always felt that the most admirable thing about military service is the idealistic defense of the principles enshrined in our constitution, the right to free speech chief among them. But hell, I’m not a conservative porn star soldier whore, so what right do I have to an opinion?

I agree that it’s usually the posters being really nasty. Just yesterday on Americablog, “AlberquerqueKen” tells the world, “I will stop being public about my sexual orientation when you and other straights (assuming you are one) stop sending me wedding invites, publishing wedding announcements in the paper, being seen together in public as a couple, and especially stop insisting I pay for the education of the products of their sexual activies.” [italics mine] I’d say that’s a little over the top. (I will admit he was provoked by another poster who asked “you gays” to “leave your sexual preferences where they belong and stop shoving them in everybody’s face.”)

I’m disturbed by the hateful language coming from the left in general. It’s not as crude as, for instance, the truly frightening white supremacist stuff, but a lot of it is so childish. There is, or was (haven’t been there in a while) an entire thread on Salon’s “Table Talk” devoted to criticizing Laura Bush’s clothes. Sure, that catty kind of stuff is fine when you’re dishing with your girlfriends, and I guess cyber-girlfriends are as good as any. But iirc this thing went on for years. It reminds me making fun of the “popular people” back in junior high. I guess it’s too much to expect measured, reasoned political discourse from every left-leaning internet site, but still. You can tell from the way these people write that they are well-educated. Just look how frequently they criticize dissenters’ spelling!

As far as “community,” I am mostly irritated with hearing the word uttered every ten minutes, usually by someone trying to get money and/or votes out of somebody else. In many cases it’s a useful term: when somebody says “arts community” or “downtown business community” it means people whose conscious choice of activity or investment links their interests. But the “gay community” is supposed to be everybody who likes sexual activity with his/her own gender. I know that the common interest linking them is the continuing fight for anti-discrimination laws. But it still seems a bit much to expect anybody to identify himself chiefly, if not solely, by his sexual orientation. Especially when gays are as diverse as, well, as the rest of the human race. And I think maybe throwing this “community” business around perpetuates negative gay stereotypes among the straights who have a tendency to homophobia anyway—who are exactly the straights the “movement” wants to reach.

I guess I have the Booker T. Washington approach to activism.

I can understand the frustration with someone like Sanchez, who not only wants to deny that he’s gay but is also perfectly happy hanging out with people who demonize gays. You’re correct that I was unhappy with his generalization about gay people, and I guess it’s just as inaccurate to refer to the gay community (as a homogenous group) in a positive light as it is to refer to the gay lifestyle (as if there’s only one) in a negative way. You’re the language whiz — help me out here.

He was wrong to apply his quasi-psychological speculations to all gays, of course. But I admit I am made just as uncomfortable, if not more so, by the hate-filled rhetoric on the far left as on the far right, spewed forth anonymously on blogs for the whole world to read.

There, flame away.