Agreed re: Public Displays of Affection. Yeah, a peck or two isn't bad, holding hands is ok, but please, I don't want to see ANYONE making out in public. Thanks. Groping, slurping sounds... gag...
I've always had a theory about flaming in society. Granted, I think "straight" people in general would be a lot happier with the gay community if they were seen as basically normal people who just happen to have a same sex partner. The major problem, I think, is that the only people who straight people see around them as "gay" are people who are such over-the-top flamers that being homosexual is equated with that gay stereotype image. Even straight men who are little more in touch with their emotions and feelings, or straight woman who are tomboys and like sports, are seen as "gay" when truly they aren't. "Gay" has become an insult meaning "you aren't masculine enough," or for women, "you're not feminine enough." This insult gets perpetuated by legitimate gay people who are unsure about how to seek out someone who is the same orientation as they are. If you are a straight guy, and a gay guy walks up to you and asks you out, wouldn't you think they are calling you less masculine somehow? It also gets perpetuated by, for example, a straight man asking a woman out. If she declines, rather than let the ego get bruised, it's easy to think the woman must be a lesbian or something.
Oddly enough, flaming is both the answer and the root of the problem. Well how will you know if a man is gay or not? If he's flaming so much, with the lisp, and the impecable fashion sense, the good manicure, the mannerisms, it's obvious that he's trying, desperately, to show the world how gay he is. Because truly, we're all human, and no one wants to be alone. Not really. So in order to avoid the social faux pas of asking a guy out and more often than not, he's straight... well make it SO obvious how gay you are, that other gay men will not be afraid to pursue you.
The other alternative is forums for people to meet where they KNOW that the others there are gay. Places like gay bars (that are explicitly known as such, I know quite a few people who have walked into a bar thinking it was a regular bar and walking out with Quite An Experience To Relate), gay/lesbian dating websites, gay/lesbian conventions, and the like. Unfortunately, that's far from the ideal way of meeting people... if you are a lesbian, and you see a woman with a nice ass at the museum, looking at the same painting that you like, and you strike up a conversation, how will you know she's the same orientation as you? What's the polite way of bringing the subject up?
It would be nice if society as a whole could break the stigma on homosexuality and the gay stereotype, and be able to come up with a way of politely inquiring about someone's orientation, and similarly, to politely answer the question honestly without feeling like their gender is being questioned. This will take some time, and unfortunately that's just the way the ball bounces.
This post cracks me up