Dear Mr. Keillor:

As far as this country's concept of the "stereotypical gay males," which you somewhat smugly characterize as "sardonic fellows with fussy hair who live in over-decorated apartments with a striped sofa and a small weird dog and who worship campy performers and go in for flamboyance now and then themselves" and then suggest that these men had better rein it in if they're to be taken seriously as gay parents: I wonder how Salon or any other self-respecting publication would have felt had you substituted a similar archaic black stereotype such as "lazy welfare cheats who love watermelon and enjoy entertaining the white man..." and if they're to be taken seriously they'd better shape up and conform to your straight white midwestern male sensibility.

I'm gay, and yes, I have a gorgeously decorated apartment. I take care with my personal appearance, I gel my hair. My holy trinity is not FatherSonHolyGhost, it's LizaBarbraJudy. In many ways, I'm a retro-glorious gay stereotype I confess. And I also maintain my sense of humor about my (and my community's) eccentricity.

However: My partner and I have a wide circle of friends in very long-term relationships, most over 15 years, and a number of these friends have children. I find it very odd that you can take it upon yourself to so callously dismiss, demean and instruct us, given the fact that you've had two 'failed' marriages. Our personal lives and commitments are really none of your business. Who designated you National GayBehavior Monitor?

Maybe you're straining for some sense of irony here that I'm missing. I just can't get past the fact that your words, just like those of Coulter and Pace, just go to show us how little traction we gays have made in this country, and that it's somehow STILL okay to voice your ignorance and hateful predjudices without any accountability.

Well, I'm calling you on it. Shame on you Garrison. I expect so much more.

Having read Mr. Keillor's piece three times, I must say that I still don't get it. What's the point, man? Are Salon's editors sleeping on the job? Is Mr. Keillor sloshed? This is just poor. What was he thinking? I mean, he does spend a lot of time in NYC, no? Surely he comes into close contact with plenty of gay folk. And THIS is what he writes? If just makes no sense. I don't mind his use of language, really. But his ignorance of the subject, well, it just baffles me. It wasn't so cold in MN this year that he's gone completely bat-shit with cabin fever, was it? As a not-so-flamboyant but nevertheless tasteful homosek-shual -- and long-time fan of Keillor's -- I hope for some clarification. By all means, don't take it back if you mean it. But do tell us what the hell you were trying to do.

OK, I'll admit that reading GK & articles in mags like the New Yorker give me a smug feeling of being able to "get it"when theauthors delve into satire that is not as obvious as, say, a Tom Tomorrow cartoon. Unfortunately, I & many people who are gay, did not quite "get" the satire in Mr. Keiler's latest missive. Which is too bad, because Mr. Keiler 's point = at least as I can figure it out - is that in today's world more attention should be paid to the children rather than to the adults who are raising them. In an unfortunately feeble attempt at humor, He points out flamboyantly dressed gay parents as an example. This does not work. In today's world, alas, gay people do not share the social privileges the rest of us enjoy. Until they do, any eccentriities among them can only be shared within their group. I remember when Polish jokes were popular, we told them in our family, but if someone who was not Polish told a Polish joke in front of me, I was not amused.

Not going to read you or listen to you any more. Always got a chuckle out of Guy Noir but always had a vague sense that there was something squishy and unconsidered at the heart of all your nonsense. This article proves it. It also is beginning to make me think that there may be something squishy and unconsidered in the heart of Salon. Hugely disappointed.

I stopped my head mid-shake though....Salon posters are a reliably humorless bunch. Apparently pretty dull too.

Perhaps the observations have a little bitty grain of truth? Or is any criticism pure blasphemy if you're (now in the majority) in a "non-traditional" household?

Sheesh. Hope you nancies are going to be okay this weekend....now go give yourself a hug, and a cup of warm soy milk, and back away from the mean old man!

Sign me,

MN Liberal Against Humorless Liberals

are just clueless, humorless dweebs.

I mean, GET A FUCKING LIFE.

Mr. Keillor,

There are times when this sing-song, wistful for the past, lilt of yours would be best shrugged off and left to sun bathe in the middle of memory lane, hopefully in the direct path of a steamroller. It’s your whole persona and one has to keep that going, I get it, but please don’t be so obtuse as to assume that gay men who decide to raise kids need your coaching as to how to conduct themselves.

Contrary to what you may believe, not all gay couples are fey prancing Nancies, swishing their way into elementary schools and giving the kids something to point at, but if we were, so what? There is an entire slew of heterosexual couples that create just as much of a spectacle, from the uber-religious “Onward Christian Soldiers” couple who can’t even let their kids watch “Davy and Goliath” because the idea of a talking dog is blasphemous, to the hyper competitive Couple who make their children do every single sport and extracurricular activity through a veil of tears because they will not tolerate losers in their family. Are you getting it?

That said; all parents embarrass their children. It’s the nature of parenting, regardless of what they do, how they dress, which hair products they use (or not), kids will answer their parents with unbridled eye-rolling and deep sighs. This fact is not exclusive to any gender combination and I wish you had acknowledged that fact.

You reminisce of a time when children were to be the focus and reap the attention of any and all situations. Have you been in a coma? You’re thinking of the era of seen and not heard. You’ve completely glazed over “in public” rule. One wrong move and Dad’s wrath would be swift and unforgiving…these peacock children that you mention simply didn’t exist, at least not for long.

I have long listened to your radio shows, from Lake Woebegone to The Prairie Home Companion, and there was seldom a day when I would miss the writer’s almanac. You have no idea how much gay couples appreciate love and accept their children because you clearly have no idea how hard they have to fight to get them. You’ve lost me Garrison Keillor.