I want to add to this topic, but I'm currently too tired to sit here long.
I will say this though. I think that the opposition to gay culture in all aspects: religious, parental, societal, governmental, psychological, etc. is why gay culture is what it is. It has been ingrained into the lives of children who are developing and remains with them as they get older. It is also reinforced by those who had suffered similar reactions who are already older. The acceptance and respect that people generally have for the heterosexual way of life is to such an exclusive degree that it generates rejection of a person's natural gay feelings and is at direct odds with those gay adolescents who just want to be understood and loved. They are chased away from those who should love them and driven into the hands of people who have been corrupted by the same societal rejection. The "core" culture is one created by being pushed away by society through an attempt to find its own and then fed on by the existing culture. It cycles itself.
I'll see what anybody says to that and then hopefully respond later.
Oh and gay marriage (at least in the sense of a legal union, not religious which the state should stay out of) is one thing that could (A) help stop the divide between accepting a person's feelings and love depending on who they love, and (B) will give something that these people swayed into the culture can at least look to for some sense of justification to their feelings and a more acceptable sense of what heterosexuals would consider normal relationship habits (something that would also put more emphasis on love rather than lust and sex, and would help cut down on the spread of STDs and just a degrading sense of self in general). I do not think that the concept of gay marriage is simply a symbol. On the surface it may seem as such, but it is a reinforcement of certain thought patterns that would greatly help gay culture in general. It is a huge step in taking a gay person's feelings out of the alley ways, bars, and clubs, and bringing it into a more respectable and productive household environment providing for personal growth, acceptance, stability, and effectiveness.
