like my grandfather who told the partner of my semi-out uncle at the family reunion: David, I want you to get Ward to bring you out to Modesto for a couple days.

I couldn’t tell if it was his way of saying something or not.

on the other hand, he also hugged David goodbye and said, “I’ll be praying for you.”

of course David responded, “I’ll be praying for you too.”

That’s the part that always kills me. People think they have little or no interaction with gays and lesbians in their daily lives because a) many gays and lesbians feel the need to hide their sexual orientation for fear of discrimination, and b) most gays and lesbians behave pretty much the same way as straights, so their orientation isn’t always knowable to people they interact with.

All this to say, it’s astonishing to me that, in 2008, so many people still are having trouble “accepting” gays and lesbians.