This is a great opinion piece! If you read the whole article, you'll even get a nod to Michael Jackson and the author's affirmation of the importance of making our external image line up with our internal self-identity.

Our bigotry as a society will subside only when those of us who don't subscribe in one way or another to the majority have the courage to be ourselves. This is fundamental to queer theory, diversity, and multi-culturalism...but the costs of facing social ostracization are steep.

Be brave everyone! The world needs to be a place where individuals can be themselves at every level!

Thanks for the clip. Everyone is trying to pass for "normal." I read a great book by a Unitarian minister about how in the black community those who are living a life passing for white are referred to by their relatives as having "passed over," a euphemism for dying. And that is exactly what you have to do when you attempt to pass you have to kill a part of you. Black folk passing as white, Jews as Gentiles, gays as straights, we are all killing ourselves attempting to be something we are not. We do so because of the legitimate fear we have about what would happen if we lived an authentic life. We all run the risk of exclusion or physical violence for being public with our true natures.

iulawboy - thanks for your comment. it is so sad, but true - i lived for decades trying to kill off a part of myself (the gay part !) and have recently come out ... it isn't easy, but i feel more alive being true to my self in spite of the ridicule, rejection, and judgment.

liked the unitarian minister's quote too...thanks!