Unsurprising, really. Conservatives and the GOP would be outraged at any sort of acknowledgement that GLBT people are in some way...human beings...and equal citizens of this country, and therefore allowed to participate in its activities.

Well, not yet fully equal, but we're trying.

I'm so glad that we have an incoming president who doesn't treat us like a plague of lepers, but realizes that *gasp* GLBT citizens are willing and able to contribute to improving our nation!

Good riddance to George W. Bush and his fucked up homophobic administration. And good riddance to all of these fundamentalist nutcases and whackjobs who have been sucking the life and freedom out of our country for the past eight years with their proximity to the offices of power. The GOP is overrun with backward looking, ignorant bigots. I'm happy they'll be off in the political wilderness for a while.

Someone should really tell groups like this that making pathetic mountains out of molehills really undercuts your credibility.

On second thought...don't tell them.

Oh- and did you know that Proctor and Gamble is run by the Church of Satan!?!? Look it up!!!

that to Republicans an unborn fetus is more important than a dead soldier. Let alone an Iraqi.

present to the American public the strengths of your platform and how you will be a good choice for the American people?

Unless, of course, you have no good ideas and would be toxic for the American people.

It's typical of the GOP in the past few years not to offer a solution or alternative to the problems we collectively face, but rather to go on the attack over trivialities in an attempt to distract from the sucking vacancy at the core of their party.

Why oh why did this movie get SO MANY nominations?

Answer: because it's the steamroller movie that Hollywood puts out every year. The one that is an overblown, over sodden mess that wants to be a great, memorable film -but isn't- despite the mega-watt stars and the heavy promotional blitz.

It happens often. Titanic was an entertaining film, but hardly a classic and it steamrolled the Oscars that year. And The English Patient? Let's face it, that movie sucked. But enough people in Hollywood bought the hype so it won every award that year.

Not to say that watching the Oscars isn't fun, it is. But it certainly has to be viewed as Hollywood's annual "Giant Pat on the Back".

If it were truly about quality a film like Slumdog Millionare or The Wrestler would take best picture. Or, a movie like Brokeback Mountain would have beaten the emotionally manipulative and forgettable Traffic. But at least they were nominated.

I don't necessarily feel that I am preemptively nasty to people, but I am highly cautious and not immediately open. This is because I am gay and the society I grew up in and currently live in treats gays as social outcasts, pariahs, deviants, sub-human and excoriates us in subtle and relentless ways.

It is getting better- but very, very slowly. I am bombarded on a daily basis with images and concepts that suggests that only straight members of our society are truly capable, and only straight people are worthy of admiration. There is a strong current that suggests I should be apologetic about every aspect and action of my life simply for the fact of my being gay.

Not to mention that homophobia and gay slurs are par for the course in nearly every social and professional situation I have ever found myself in.

And this doesn't even touch on the racism and sexism people face on a daily basis. But we didn't need a study to inform us of this fact. People need only to open their eyes and ears to those around them who are in a minority- and actually listen to what they are saying instead of walling themselves off.

Just wanted to thank you for your excellent letter. Especially the line, "we are not meant to start out where our parents ended up". So very true! It's hard to maintain perspective when you're just starting out, that these things have to be earned and earning them takes time. It's something I have to remind myself of.

With a second paragraph like this:

"Conservatives have been right more often than not — and more often than liberals — about most of the important issues of the day: about Communism and jihadism, crime and welfare, education and the family. Conservative policies have on the whole worked — insofar as any set of policies can be said to “work” in the real world. Conservatives of the Reagan-Bush-Gingrich-Bush years have a fair amount to be proud of."

Kristol shows that he will never cease with being wrong, delusional, and generally full of shit. This hack's been wrong about everything he's written or said for years. My only question- Why did it take The Times so long to wake up to this fact?

can't we all agree that moving away from carbon-based sources of energy is also beneficial due to the fact that green energy doesn't pollute our environment, send money to unstable regimes, and allows us to create and keep green jobs here in the US?

People who can't see that alone as a problem worry me. I don't like the idea that there are power plants and cars spewing all kinds of crap into our air and water and causing increases in asthma, cancer and a whole host of nasty illnesses.

Green energy is beneficial, healthy and sustainable for a multitude of reasons.

Conservatives will rightly be confused and upset as they are the antithesis of rationality and maturity.