I, too, would like to talk about the issues instead of each other. HOWEVER, Little Hawk, you are saying that we should not confront and name bigotry when it raises its ugly head. Many of us think that not speaking in the face of bigotry and hate is to tacitly endorse and permit them. I agree that nothing we say will change the mind or the heart of the bigot one whit, but that's not the reason we choose to vocally oppose them.

As for GfS's claims:
By the way, the first real band I was in, in the mid 60's was four back up vocalists, behind a lead singer....all black!.. My credits include, Tina Turner, Michael Jackson and I have met Stevie Wonder on several occasions.

I know that GfS is language-challenged, but I see no way to read this that doesn't imply it was in Tina Turner's and Michael Jackson's bands.

As to whether the United States will elect an openly gay president sooner than other countries, I doubt it. We still have lots of officially sanctioned discrimination going on. Until we have laws against this discrimination and a couple of generations for people to learn how to behave, I don't see it. That's about how long it took us to elect a partially black president after we outlawed official bigotry against African-Americans.