First Time Caller, Long Time Listener

On the way to work this morning, I was listening to a local radio station, Q100. An interesting topic came up and it made me question, have we really evolved at all with our level of tolerance and understanding of gay issues? A caller was worried about his son, his 3 year old son, who wanted to be a ballerina for Halloween. Immediately the "Bert Show" addressed his concerns with jokes and laughter...indicating how horrified they would be if their child had approached them with a similar issue. Melissa, who is on the show and who is gay, was trying to be as PC as possible pointing out that this is exactly the problem. When she asked the caller, why he was so concerned he said, "If I run into my friends with my son, I'll be embarrassed and horrified of what they will say." The other members of the morning show agreed. In fact the lead guy, Bert, went as far to say, if my son turned out to be gay, I'd be completely disappointed, but yeah, I'd still love him. Bert, you are so generous. Isn't this exactly what we deal with everyday? The fact that so many of us live continuously semi-closeted lifestyles is because we don't want to disappoint our parents, siblings, friends...but what the fuck? We are the ones who continually bear the burden from all angles. This is a form of discrimination that is so close to home it is much worse and more damaging than any expletive or demeaning remark a stranger could yell. If we still don't feel like we are accepted at home or within our inner circle, have we really evolved as a society to be accepting of the gay culture? It is the classic not in my backyard argument. I know that many people will argue, my family wholeheartedly accepts me for who I am, but I honestly feel you would be in the minority. The damage to this man's son is already done. The resentment never leaves. Years, distance, apologies and sincerity will never, ever remove the feeling of when a parent expresses disappointment or even anger at something so innocent a child could never understand. How can we expect society to be accepting of the gay culture, when in many, many cases, our own core unit puts on a smile, but secretly wishes things were different? We have come a long way, but evidently, we still have a long way to go. Core values permeate generations…and it will take generations to instill true, heartfelt unconditional tolerance.