First of all, has Baynes really thought this through? How do you effectively determine who is gay and who isn't? Does he think that every gay high school kid will be happy to raise his or her hand when the question is asked? And if you could effectively determine who was who and segregate them accordingly the law of unintended results might kick in here. Gays having their own bathrooms and showers at school? I remember when I was in high school. If only.

Baynes concern is interesting if for no other reason than the issues it touches upon. He latches on to the idea that every straight guy is an object of desire for every gay guy. That guys are somehow unable to control their lust, and in particular that gay guys can't be trusted to behave around straight guys. And of course, that straight guys are paralyzed by the fear that some gay guy might be checking them out in the shower.

Later in the article he also appears to accept the idea that people "go gay". The implication is that as more and more people adopt the gay "lifestyle" society is going to have to take steps to protect an increasingly beleaguered and shrinking straight majority. I love these people.

http://www.idahopress.com/?id=8264

Hang on, this is in Idaho right?

Ummm, so the gay bathroom, would this be used for purposes such as what their wonderful Senator Larry Craig uses the poddy for?

Oh wait, he's not gay and never has been gay. So that would only happen in the STRAIGHT poddy.

Actually, looking back at my school days, I would have preferred a gay only bathroom...the bathrooms were disgusting and I'm sure we would have kept the gay bathroom a little more clean and maybe spruced the place up a little.

This is a joke, right?

Yes, if they don't keep us queers away from the straight guys we'll all include them in our illustrious lifestyle. They'll never want to go back to the boring straight life again!

Well, in my case it's mostly sitting on the computer working on stuff in illustrator and looking at MBs and Blogs, playing with my cat and puppy, maybe play a couple of videogames or watch a movie in between those times I'm out and about taking care of stuff or socializing.

This is the most awesome lifestyle ever.

Do we get separate water fountains too?

OMG are you stalking me? That is totally my life, that and some misc. coding for websites, administrator of 7 websites, message boards and blogs...and of course I have to listen to Ed Schultz and Randi Rhodes.

Segregated bathrooms are ridiculous, there are still some very homophobic kids out there and putting big signs on gay kids and forcing them to use certain bathrooms would be an awful idea from a safety and security standpoint. And yes, will every gay and lesbian student raise their hands?

Maybe.

But, then the straight people will start wanting to use them because we'll keep them clean.

It's possibly synchronicity. A connected principle, totally invisible, almost imperceptible.

It is a joke in the sense that if you don't laugh about so much of what RW straights get worked up over when it comes to us you have to cry.

I'm with Alfredo in that our bathrooms would be nicer. Good toiletries, and no elderly straight wide-stancers allowed for starters.

Now, if you all will excuse me I have to go be "in the life" and empty the cats' box.

I think Bayes is trying to tell us he is not gay. And yes, he is a fine hunk of straight man meat, who gays cannot resist. The man should get a whip to beat them all off.

(Great points Tyo.)

It is funny how people always assume things about other peoples' sexual orientation.

I used to work in health care. There's a certain group of people who, when going to the doctor's office for a sexually-related problem or for any medical issue that required they remove their underwear, would insist on being seen by a staff member of the same sex -- the ludicrous assumption being that the person of the same sex who would be seeing them would also be heterosexual!

This whole issue is so ridiculous, but all that the RW has to fight with. It's still gays, guns, and God. So juvenile, they can't seem to come to grips that if God loves everyone, he means EVERYONE!!!! Narrow minded pricks who are probably screwing the daughter of their housekeeper. Just because Gay people have a different lifestyle, doesn't justify segregation. Now this prick will justify it as being 'gay friendly', "Oh, we're just letting them have their own showers to turn into a bathhouse of sordidness" BS. It's segregation, plain and simple. What student would be willing to use those showers anyway? So they can out themselves to the sickos on the right? Yeah, ok. NOT!!!

I look at it this way. In the parts of the country where demonizing gays is still a vote-getter you have a situation in which:

There aren't that many gays who are both out and have the often not inconsiderable courage required to stand up for themselves. And there are even fewer straights who have the inclination or the courage to stand up for them.

People feel like their traditions and traditional morality are under siege by forces beyond their control and gays are both representative of that threat and they are probably not living next door. In short they are the perfect soft "feel good" target.

Because they are so removed (even if they really aren't) and because they have traditionally been portrayed so negatively by popular culture gays are a convenient vehicle on which to pile all sorts of attendant fears such as those of disease, predatory behavior toward kids, questionable patriotism, and the ever-feared "feminization" of the American male.

It's changing. I've been out pretty much all of my life and I only encountered a lot of this weirdness after I left high school and got out on my own and realized what a safe and accepting environment I'd been lucky enough to grow up in. My response to this was militancy but even I have to recognize that in the past few years, while progress has often been irregular and tentative, progress there has been. Evidence the fact that guys like this Baynes idiot are slowly becoming less of a threat and more of a joke

I can tell things are kinda changing around here too.

A friend of mine, good Christian girl and Bush supporter(I don't hold that against her,) has a lot of gay friends that she loves and doesn't like it when people harass gays.

So, I think changes are happening around youth perception of gays and it'll only keep changing with each generation.

Is there some way we can hasten this process?

No kidding. But only if it doesn't involve any lowering of standards. There are some people.... How do I put this delicately? There are some people who are probably better off being straight. If you catch my drift.

Lets not forget: the entire womens lacrosse team would have it's own shower! We know what those ladies would be getting into...

I can see schools having to build entire new wings to accommodate the proliferation of designated shower rooms.

You bring up a good point. We should move to have "the agenda" modified... only recruit hotties and with appropriate vein

This is actually funny because Sen Larry Craig is the super duper Republican senator from the State of Idaho and I am sure it will take him a few moments to decide if he needs to go potty and one sign says "GAY" and the other one reads "NOT"...

It'll be a tough decision for a lot of Republican Larry Craigs.

And btw, does being bi mean never having to stand in line?