Si Kahn has a beautiful song on his "New Wood" cd about the isolation of a man in a small town who had once loved another man and when they were outed, his lover killed himself. His songs are so wonderful in a lovely low-key, compassionate/powerful way.

My experience, having lived in one of the small cities in the U.S. with the largest per capita gay population (Santa Fe, NM) is that 1.) men are much more brutal to men they suspect of being gay; 2.) women-in-general might shun women they suspect of being lesbian but they don't taunt them and beat them to a bloody pulp; 3.) even if you try to socialize with either gay men or lesbians, they tend to self-select and shun YOU. My friends and I went out of our way to include our gay and lesbian friends in our activites -- not out of any sense of missionary zeal, just because we liked them, we worked with them, we socialized with each other so why not with them? But they would rarely show up at our parties and when they did, it was with their other gay and/or lesbian friends. They would stand around on the fringes, watch for a little while and then leave, usually to go to a gay or lesbian party or bar of their own. Occasionally, I would be invited to one of their parties and I would go. I was treated with respect, but definitely was held at a distance because i wasn't part of the 'family.'

It's a vicious cycle, isn't it? People feel threatened, they segregate themselves to feel/be safe, then they're segregated because they only want to hang out with "their kind." And everyone can tell themselves that's fine and that's how we want it. It's this way with racial differences, too. People have such a hard time stretching themselves beyond certain boundaries.

P.S. Jaze, some of us think a nekkid male body is a thing of beauty as well. Depends on the male. And on the thing, of course.

ww