I don't see any meaness in you at all but I take little serious in this life. I am just watching the parade go by. Maybe some are more sensitive.

I see the gay community a little different maybe. I lived in the third largest gay city (Atlanta) and the fourth largest (New Orleans). I found a lot of diversity within their culture, politically and otherwise. In CA it is natural to find mostly liberal I suspect

Most of the lesbians and young gay men were probably liberal but when you get into the middle aged men and the leather boys the politics were really all over the board.

Regarding the "bug chasers", the kid I mentioned was as close as I have come to seeing this as a fact. He seemed to be very interested in the treatments and hinted around that he took some of the medicine but I figured him for a poser.

I have some pretty conservative views on homosexuality. I think they are slightly broken and there by choice. However, mistreatment and hate is out of the question.

I had three openly gay (2 men and a woman) that worked for me in NOLA in a company of about 60 people. They were all decent folks, well liked by all and I had no problem working with them. They were, to some degree, screwed up as were most of the non-gay. I was the only person in the company that was totally sane and normal. :)