No Bull about Billy Bean

I won't insult baseball lovers by expanding upon my lack of interest in the boys of summer. My interest here is in the life of a muscular, athletic, macho sports figure who managed to survive in the big leagues without being outed. I've previously read Bob Paris' Straight from the Heart, which wasn't ghost written; and will probably read fellow Canadian Mark Tewksbury's Inside Out about the life of a gay Olympian. Ironic, given the historic Greek attitude toward sex that an Olympic athlete would feel forced to stay in the closet.

I find it sad that so many still believe that homosexuality is a lifestyle choice rather than an expression of the essence of an individual over which that individual has no control. It's also sad that so many are so insecure that they feel threatened by the idea of non-heterosexual relationships. Fundamentalists seem to forget that the reason the Bible proscribes any male sexual stimulation that would not lead to procreation was that it would not result in breeding of little Isrealites who would grow up to defend the Jewish cause. In a world that is rapidly becoming over-populated to the point that it no longer looks down on childless couples, it is hard to understand why other unions that will not lead to procreation are still looked down on by so many. The fact that there are gay sexual predators seems to grab headlines but those headlines seem to neglect the fact that there is even more sexual perversion in the straight world.

I feel sad for people who are so insecure that they feel compelled to define their self-worth in terms of the people to whom they feel superior. In the US South there are still vast pockets of people who mourn the economic engine that slavery provided and target people of colour with resentment for their continued reduced economic conditions. Another sector of the world population continues to scapegoat the Jews as the cause for their economic woes and either deny the Holocaust or claim that Hitler had the right idea. Wouldn't it be more productive if the people who expend so much energy resisting the idea of gay and lesbian unions concentrated their efforts on doing something about the fact that nearly 50% of marriages end in divorce?