Wow, never seen that! I was more focusing on how he sounded like he could never get HIV from a Woman!
Sorry, refered to you as a third person! What started the gay male HIV forest fire?
Yeah, I have to say that it’s possible one of my children is gay, and it makes me sad to think about. She has enough problems getting along with people without that added complication.
I’ve actually thought about starting a thread along the same lines, but dealing with celebrities, and whether it really negatively impacts their careers any more. Openly gay celebs like Ellen, Elton John, etc., seem not to have suffered at all for having come out.
In terms of everyday people, hey, if you’re coming out to me because you feel you need support, then I care. For one thing, I care that you feel unsupported. For another, I feel a little bit flattered that you feel comfortable enough with me for me to be the first one you come out to.
If you’re my husband, yeah, I’d definitely care. I don’t want him having sex with other people, but I don’t want him unhappy, either. Seems like one or the other would have to happen.
Otherwise, no skin off my nose. I have two sisters who are gay, and a lot of family gatherings are held at the home of one of my gay sisters. A lot of their friends are gay, too, so I’d say those gatherings (close friends are always included in family gatherings) are probably 30% gay. Doesn’t bother me in the least.
When both of these sisters were younger, I used to go to gay bars with them (the reasoning being that I could be more comfortable in gay bars than they could be in non-gay bars); in those bars, I’d occasionally get hit on by other women. But a simple, friendly, “Oops, sorry, I’m straight” was all it ever took to get them to back off.
Acceptance really has grown in the past ten years or so, and I’m glad to see it.
I agree with whoever upthread said that it’s really a good thing to come out, because if your friends/family/acquaintances are gay, you’re likely to see that, hey, gay people are very much like straight people. They just like different stuff in the bedroom. Therefore, you’re more likely to be less opposed to gay rights. Therefore, gay rights happen more quickly.
Also, I have three daughters, ages 22, 18, and 9. My 22YO was “gay” for a while, but I’m pretty sure it was just for shock value. When my hubby and I weren’t sufficiently shocked over that, she became “bi”, then Wiccan. 
At this point, even though she’s married (to a man; gay marriage isn’t legal in Maryland where she lives), I don’t know for sure how she identifies sexually. My 18YO is straight, but knows it wouldn’t be a problem (for me or her father) if she was gay. My 9YO doesn’t have a sexuality yet. But I’ll make it just as clear to her as I have to the other two that what I really want is for them to be happy. If that means having a partner of the same sex, or a different race, or whatever, I’m here to be supportive.
Would I care? No, because (apart from the fact that I don’t really know you) I’m all “Hey, whatever works for you.” I have enough trouble sorting out my own life without worrying about who’s doing what to whom amongst consenting, informed adults.
Does anyone still care? Yes. Many, many people do care, often for really stupid reasons. The world has moved on quite a lot in the last ten years with regard to homosexual relationships but it still has a long way to go.
I don’t. I don’t understand why people make a big deal of it, which includes both those who are told, and those who do the telling. I just don’t get the need to have any sort of conversation - person-to-person or a broader societal conversation - about who you prefer to rub genitals with.
The only downside to this, for me, is that I would never make the assumption without being told. I don’t generally “assume” people are either way, but for all I know you could be closeted, in denial, or just musically inclined and altruistic. Unless you mention your same-sex partner, I would never make the leap without your “permission”. It’s still hurtful for some people to be assumed to be homosexual because of their preference for little dogs or their excellent taste in interior decorating (or on the flip side, because you have short hair and wear army boots).
I don’t mean that it makes a big difference in how I view or interact with you socially, but it does ease “context” and our ability to relate, just like I might be hesitant to discuss social issues without knowing your religious or political stance.
Without wanting to hijack the thread too much, homosexual men are, on average, much more promiscuous than straight males or females or homosexual females.
It’s possible that the earliest cases of HIV/AIDS in the US were all “descended” from a single (gay) Haitian male.
No, that won’t hijack the thread at all. :rolleyes:
Lunchy, there are countless books and resources on the subject. And the Band Played On is one of the most well-known, although flawed, of them.
No, don’t care.
I mean… it’s not contagious, right?
Don’t care.
I’ve had two people tell me that they’re gay. The first was someone I knew only casually, and I’m not sure why he mentioned it at all - he seemed to think it would put me and my partner at ease with him. It was a little creepy.
The second was a friend I’ve known from high school, and I was startled. Not because I would never have imagined that she was gay, but because I’d kind of assumed that she was. When she went ahead and married a guy, I decided she just wasn’t into gender stereotypes. Apparently it took her a while to figure it out for herself.
Nope, of course not. I’m 22, and have several gay friends, but have seen very different views espoused by older generations. I can say, however, that blatant flamboyancy offends me more than heterosexual PDA, because the flamboyancy always seems contrived.
I do not care that my sister-in-law is gay. I do care that she’s a jerk, though, which has nothing to do with her orientation. Her jerkiness affects our relationship more than who she sleeps with, which affects us not at all.
I would like to add: but no more promiscuous than straight males if straight males had the chance.
Damn right I care! Now, the pictures I sent you in strictest confidence where I was wearing just leather motorcycle boots, and asking if you thought a woman would find my ass and package attractive… well… now that’s something that’s tainted and wrong! I’m flushed with shame!
It has to do with simple sexual mechanics. With straight people, the female typically receives a lot more of the male’s body fluids than vice versa. So there’s a certain amount of male-to-female transmission, then it stops. The woman is less likely to pass the virus on to another person.
But with two men, each is capable of both giving and receiving body fluids, so it’s much more likely that the virus will be passed along from one person to another to another. And . . . and I know this is a generality . . . back in the 70s, it was less accaptable for gay men to fit into roles of top/bottom than it is today. The norm was to be versatile . . . which is the easiest way to spread a virus.
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No argument there. 
In the broadest application of DMark’s question, my answer is “yes!”. If I care at all about a person, I’ll care about his/her sexuality too, because that’s a big part of who we all are. I’d want to know, not out of an outdated religious-based sense of morality (and censure), but from [slightly prurient] curiosity – and if I was or was to become on pretty friendly terms with him, I’d like to know what type (if any) of guy he was particularly attracted to, for matchmaking purposes. Bonus points in that category if the guy in question is attractive or appealing and I’d been curious or attracted to him to some degree; it’s always nice to know where one stands, and why.
But another reason I’d like to know is that I have gay friends and knowing that about someone, it’d be another reason to invite him to their next party and make introductions all around. Bonus points (again) if the out-of-the-closet guy was single; he might just find a match…
Generally don’t care. If it were one of my sons I’d care only in the sense that it would be one of the many things that will make things more difficult (mostly because of unenlightened segments of society) for them. If I had a magic wand, I’d be just as likely to make the prejudice disappear as change their sexual preference.