[SummerTiger]

I have a gay friend, lets call him R, who none of my other friends, male or female, thought was gay until he came out. R does everything your average male student does, so others see him as pretty "masculine". In fact, feminine does not factor into his personality at all. If he hadn't told us he was gay, we would have no idea.

Sure, there are some gays that may fall into the category of 'feminine' by our standards, but i feel that there are just as many others who aren't as easy to spot. It's a bit disconcerting to me that people truly believe that all gays are woman-like. It's as if: A) this categorization hints at the innate weakness of homosexuals because of their similarity with the 'weaker sex', and B) the gays are reducible to a few stereotypical traits that make themseem sub-human (increased desire for sex, femininity, OCD-like, distinct physical appearance and walk, to name a few -- which are not exclusive to gays anyway!).

I feel that the portrayal of gays in the media prevents people from using their own judgment. It creates false notions of what it means to be gay, and then people need to re-learn to see others as human beings and not a bundle of traits, most of which are wrong anyway... Personally, I see a resemblance between the stereotype of the feminine gay male and the stereotypical bird-brained housewife. Both images are somewhat comical, shown for the sake of entertainment more so than for accurate portrayal of a woman or a man.

-Tiger