Mark, please read this through, thanks.
I probably feel more anger towards fundamentalist Christians than anyone else here.
Since you certainly have read of all the problems they have caused for my parents and for me - up to and including threats to have me kicked out of the US, leaving my parents without the help they need - I often give voice to my feelings.
After many people - including, I do believe you - pointed out to me that not all Christians are monsters - I laid off the comments about "not leaving the lions out overnight" and other such statements. To show that there is a difference, I have begun to use the word "christianist" to reflect those people who only dish out hatred, cherry-pick the bible and rejoice in hurting other people. Not Christians, christianists. As in "islamic extremists". Same thing.
Up until the early 1980's, it really looked as though the Christian church in the US and the gay movement were going to be able to reach, if not harmony, at least consensus. Sadly, Aids and the Reagan revolution, the "silent majority" and a very manipulative form of fundamentalism all coalesced to form a perfect storm of hatred and persecution against us. You know this, you are a tad bit older than I am.
Many of us, furious with the way we were treated, enraged by the way our sick friends (and for many; lovers, life partners) were dying and rejected completely left the church and the Christian religion behind.
Under Clinton, the conflict didn't get resolved - it just mutated into an even worse form. Matthew Shepard's death, however foolish he might have been, was the moment which made a lot of us realize that they would stop at nothing to torture and kill us.
The last seven years, soon to be over, have been characterized by an unprecedented attack on our civil liberties...not since black people were regarded as being 3/5 human had efforts been made to reduce human beings to sub-human status, to strip them of their civil rights. Not in the US, at any rate. Nazi Germany did a very efficient job of it, killing millions of Jews, Roma, Gays, devout Christians, mentally and physically handicapped children...
So where do we go from here? The culture wars may finally be drawing to a close, at least for the moment. But for many of your and my generation, it is, I think like it was for those in my mother's family who ended up on the two different sides of the War of Northern Aggression, as my one great-great-great aunt put it - she saw her family fight on opposite sides and her experiences in Virginia are still passed down in the family when we can't get along. The war was over, they had to chose: Can we still be family or must we go our separate ways?
And that's the problem we face here. You, sir, have not attacked me; you have certainly not participated in the hateful, spiteful battle we have fought here in proxy for some time. I wish you no harm. Much more to the point, I don't want you to leave. You have just as much right to be here as any of us.
Tell you what, as a symbol of my good wishes, regardless of your answer, I will withdraw from all postings here in Super (I never discuss anything but ancient machinery in Imperial and old machinery in Deluxe) for the next month. Write me per email if you like, I'll be happy to answer...but please, don't go away.
Seriously, I will lighten up a bit. 
