Shambs: I am sorry, but what planet are you living on??? Young gay people are NOT generally accepted, NOR are they comfortable in coming out. It is a time of great changes for any young person, when none of them want to feel different than their peers. As Emily said, many teens still use the terms "queer, faggot, lesbo, etc. as the most deragatory terms they can call one another.

And, by saying that someone dresses a certain way in order to identify that they are gay, be careful about making such assumptions. The media have fed stereotypes to society ad nasueum. You should come out here sometime to the gay rodeo or even the regular rodeo and meet some of my gay cowboy friends, (although it'd have to be away form the rodeo, as I don't go to them anymore); or the power exec lesbian I know. Of course, just like any subculture there are choices one can make if they want to *flame* or be subtle. The use of subtle choices is no different than what any other repressed and oppressed segment of society has used for i.d. of friends in the past, including early Christians. And, so what if someone wants to be flamboyant about it, ala Liberace. Isn't that their right, too? Should they "deserve" to be beaten or murdered because they flaunted it; just like a street woman deserves to be beaten and raped?

Sorry, the real world is not generally accepting and is not safe, not yet, anyway. We're working on it, though.

kat