My "Coming Out" Announcement

I'm here today because I'm straight. And because maybe I can make a difference. To help others have an easier and more hopeful time. Regardless, for me, I feel a personal obligation and a social responsibility.

It's weird because here I am, a blogger, representing – at least in some sense – a culture that has had ever-increasing, strident, and often unreasoning demands placed upon us. Demands for tolerance, special status, and of censorship.

It was difficult for me to reach the decision to make this announcement, but it was time. I would appreciate your support as my family and I move forward in the face of increasing hostility towards heterosexuals. Thank you.

If you've followed current events recently with the athletes and at least one Hollyweird celebrity “coming out,” you'll know exactly why I wrote the above. Yes, I paraphrased, and parodied, Ellen Page's coming out announcement, but I did so to illustrate the absurdity of it – not that she is gay, but that she felt the need to announce it to the world. Does she truly and honestly believe that she's the first lesbian actress? Or even the first openly lesbian actress?

NBA playerJason Collins comes out of the closet, and he's hailed as a hero. Tim Tebow is open about his Christianity, and he's vilified.

Michael Sam announces he's gay, and nobody bats an eye. Why? Because no one cares that he's gay. What people care about is whether he'll be a good professional football player, especially fans of the St. Louis Rams. Given his performance at the NFL Combine there's some reasonable doubt.

My point is that most people don't want to hear about someone's private life – hence the reason it's called private. Personally, I don't need to know who's sleeping with whom. It's none of my business, just as who I'm sleeping with is none of yours. ~ Hunter