@Gnu: "Just seems to me there are a pile of idiots......." Have you only just noticed that? How long have you been on Mudcat? (or any other internet forum for that matter!)(My tongue is very firmly in my cheek here!)

It's interesting how others react to GLBT people. At the weekend I went to a vernissage and the subject of the pictures gave a short resume of her life. Coming out to her father as M2F at the beginning of the 1980s was apparently no problem.......then she told him she was also a lesbian......That did not go down well!

Somewhere in the Bible there is something along the lines of,"we are all made in God's image". I've found this very useful when dealing with religious bigots. Unless, of course, they've got Ph.Ds in Theology and consequently lots of clever, evasive answers.

@Mauvepink: re the comment about bigots- On YouTube there's a video of Janis Ian performing 'Society's Child' in Brighton in 2011. What she tells in her introduction to the song illustrates the bigot problem perfectly. The trouble, as I see it, is that they dig themselves in in their personal bunkers and become unreachable for any form of discourse that contradicts and attempts to prise open their sad ignorance.

Must work more on my singing voice. If Louisa Jo K could do it then so can I!