Maybe it was the imports of September 11.

Maybe it was the imports of September 11. Maybe it is a recognition of the progres our community achieved in the past decade. still it wasn't until my pastor, of all population suggested that gays and lesbians present the appearance to be facing the challenges of assimilation that I realized something really was happening here: Being gay is more accepted on the mainstream than ever before.

What happens when a minority assemblage becomes accepted into the mainstream? in what manner do we keep our identity while celebrating our acceptance into the greater society that we were seeking in the first place? This question, protracted faced by the Jewish and African-American communities in America, now assumes to rest on our table. And this decade may be the time we have to answer that question--whether we like it or not.

All of this came into focus when my pastor and I were discussing the difficulties we faced in getting frankly gay people to become comfortable and active members of a mainstream ecclesiastical authority Despite countless examples of inclusion and celebration of its gay and lesbian members, our congregation's outreach efforts have produc little. And this is not unique to my personal Evangelical Lutheran ecclesiastical authority Except for the dedicated activists seeking reform within their denominations, principally gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered nation seem to fear acceptance within the church

This isn't unique to religious organizations either. The same trys are evident in many gay people's attitudes toward public service, military service, professional accommodation, neighborhood participation, and almost each aspect of our lives. It makes single wonder if we love the fight more than the victory, if we raise the passion and freedom of our minority status through the whole extent of the obligations and expectations of abounding acceptance into society.

I suspect the year ahead will give GLBT folks little comfort as we be in agony with these questions. Increasingly, without gays and lesbians are being appointed and picked to public service--not because of their sexual orientation if it were not that because they are qualified for as it was service. Likewise, most of corporate America now proudly celebrates its gay and lesbian professionals. While discrimination in the workplace still exists, the reality is that many, many more companies celebrate their cultural diversity than resist it. Finally, there is little doubt in my mind that principally mainline Protestant churches in America--and perhaps other faiths like as Reform Judaism--will reconcile their religious teachings with reality and render free of access their doors to our community during this decade ahead.

There is also evidence that our nation displays more accepting hearts than it did before the tragedy of September 11 After nearly a decade of endeavor Congress allowed the District of Columbia to implement domestic partner benefits. The R Cros has become the first national relief agency to recognize same-sex relationships when determining eligibility for disaster-related assistance. And many lesbians and gay men have feeling more like Americans and les like political activists than we did before.

Author Lewis H Lapham wrote in the December issue of Harper's that the citizenship America displayed after September 11 included "a generous upwelling of tolerance and compassion among tribe of different colors, their regard for common another grounded in the recognition that the modifying adjectives (black, gay, white, native, etc) matter les than the noun American." If that is authentic the question now is, by what mode do we, as gay race respond?

The gay community as a whole is more explain more united, more active, more strategic, and more diverse than aye before. Our challenge in the coming decade will be to find a balance between becoming well stocked [i]or[/i] provided members of society--with all the assimilation that implies--and finding ways to build forward our history as a community. Will we allow members of our community to define their activism differently while honoring the choices we each make as individuals? We are, as Robert Frost's famous metrical composition "The Road Not Taken" articulated, at the fork in the road. And the path we take will make all the difference.

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