Coming Out. By analogy, having come of age in NYC virtually at the inception of the "gay liberation" movement - I was there for the Stonewall riots - and having observed then and for the years following how difficult and emotional and psychically draining it was for my gay friends to come out (of the 'closet', I am struck by the narratives and observations I read on this site posted by those for whom even expressions of religious skepticism, much less outright rejection of a theocratic imposition of morality, is arduous and daunting. I like to think that I was raised in an environment of unfettered religious, philosophical and political discourse, and I am tempted to regard your complaints as somewhat preposterous, but then I allow myself emotionally to re-visit the pain of my own struggles, and to recall that I too grew up among attitudes of bigotry and prejudice, religious and political, and that it was not until I made my own way into the world where I could make my own, more sympathetic connections, that I was able to shed those ideological shackles. I had for some time been able to take my freedoms for granted - and on that basis would have continued to diminish your struggles - until I moved to Texas, where I was once again thrust into a world of bigoted, "low-information", faux-Christian moralists. And now the struggle is re-joined, but at least I know that I can no longer silently suffer such affronts to reason and true spirituality, because, as it did to my gay friends who never found the way to come out, silently suffering will make you ill, emotionally, spiritually, and physically - these are metaphysical truths. Keep opening your big mouths - nicely if you can - but don't suffer in silence. I support you all.