Yeah, our neighborhood was mostly “Vote No’s,” but we did have a few “Vote Yes’s” here and there, including our neighbors across the street. We do the “polite but distant” thing, though I can see people who are actually GLBT being uncomfortable even with that.
Wow, that was… incoherent.
Anyway, I doubt I’d make nice with them either. There are so many more pleasant people to be around. I wouldn’t go out of my way to be rude, but I wouldn’t really bother to acknowledge them either.
If the opportunity arose, I might, might, return their wave with silent eye contact, a flick of the eyes to the offending sign, return to eye contact, and then walking away. Although I don’t know that I’d want to put that much effort into it.
When Prop 8 was on the ballots here in California, there was one house in my neighborhood who had pro-8 signs in their yard. They happened to be on the route I’d walk my (large, Pyranese-hybrid) dog past, and far enough into the route that the primary purpose of the excursion had already been accomplished.
You don’t know the meaning of “temptation” until you walk past the house of an unreptant bigot on a daily basis, with a bag of warm shit in your hands, and not do anything with it.
What sort of “kind” are we talking about? Religion? No. Ethnicity? Hell no. Political positions?Yes. in fact, I enjoy such interactions.
Funny how folks’ opinion depends on whose ox is being gored. I’m not gay, nor is anyone in my immediate family (afaik). So while - of course - folk should not be discriminated against on the basis of sexual preference, for me gay rights is just one of the many many issues I think ought to be handled differently.
I also know that just about everyone I’ve met has some sort of prejudices if you look deeply enough. I’m always a little curious about people who feel the need to publicly express such prejudices via yard signs or bumper stickers. Personally, I find some religious or pro-war messages quite offensive to values I hold extremely dear. But a yard sign would have to be pretty exceptional for me to not simply wave to a neighbor.
Legally, sexual preference is not a class protected by the US Constitution. Your state constitution may vary. So, under federal law, messages directed at “kikes and niggers” receives different scrutiny than messages aimed at “fags”.
This isn’t a question about Constitutional status. A neighbor who believes that my lifestyle is immoral and offensive is different from one who simply believes that my opinions are wrong, and that’s not about law.