#4 A Fight for Hope (washingtonpost.com)

OK, this one gets to me.

A Fight for Hope (washingtonpost.com): "Gay men and lesbians have never reacted to pending legislation as emotionally as they have now. Not even with the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. That proposed legislation would have forbidden employment discrimination based on sexual orientation (it lost by one vote in the Senate).

There was no mass mobilization by gay men and lesbians then. There wasn't the kind of profound sense of loss and hurt that we're feeling now. Why? Because there was, and still is, a way around job discrimination: lying. We can always push the 'cloak' button and turn invisible by acting straight and keeping our personal lives to ourselves.
The same thing could be said about other institutions that insist we remain invisible. How do we stay in the military if we're gay? Lie. How do we stay in the church? Lie. How do we stay in our families? Lie.

But how do we lie our way into marrying the person we love?

How do we lie our way into hospital visitation rights when our partners are on their deathbeds?

How do we lie our way into getting Social Security survival benefits for our kids? "