Yeah, I understand exactly what bothers you about that, Joy Bringer...but here's the thing. Why do you give it your attention?

See, I have no interest in the Gay Pride Parade...so I just ignore it. It doesn't bother me because I don't focus on it. I do something else instead.

You have to consider just how much of your valuable time and attention you are going to give to the things you don't like...and there will always be plenty of things you don't like in this world.

I detest commercial advertising. I mean I really absolutely HATE it. With a vengeance. Accordingly, I simply stopped watching all commercial TV back around 1985, and I only watch it now if I have a VERY specific and important reason to...and that's hardly ever. I don't listen to commercial radio for the same reason. I don't NEED to. I can get all the good music I want by simply playing CDs...and then I'm in control of what music I'm listening to, and I don't have to hear any advertising in between the songs. I can see videos I like by renting them.

I can avoid the damn advertising they have now in the Cineplex by simply walking into the theatre 10 minutes after the official start time of the movie...by which time the noisy advertising is over and the real movie is about to begin.

Now...I could spend my time getting furious about all the commercial advertising and ruining my own mood over it...or I could just as easily avoid most of it. I have chosen the latter course.

No one has to go and watch the Gay Pride Parade. No one has to sit and listen to a TV or radio show that is going on and on about how great the gay lifestyle is. No one has to read an article about it. No one has to sit and watch Freddie Mercury or any other such personality if they don't want to. I mean...hell...there are plenty of other things one can choose to focus on, right?

You follow me?

This is the problem with having a chip on one's shoulder. The chip is like a live creature, a monkey on your back that keeps grabbing you by the ear and yelling, "Look! Look at this awful thing over here that you hate! I want you to focus on this awful thing, by God, and I want you to get REALLY upset about it, and then I want something DONE about it, and I am going to make your life and other people's lives hell until something IS done about it!!!!!!!!"

That's not wise. It just messes up your day. It makes enemies too.

Now the overly pushy gay rights advocates whom you are reacting to have such a chip on their shoulders, in my opinion. And you've got the mirror image of that chip on your shoulder as well. That's what I see happening...action-reaction-counter-reaction, back and forth.....the one constantly feeding the other. The monkeys are in cahoots. They need each other.

If someone was to just decide to dump that monkey off his shoulder, then the angry waters would calm right down.