James Randi, magician-turned-prominent sceptic/atheist, and a hero of mine, has "come out" at the age of 81. This was greeted by a chorus of support, occasional condemnation, and a significant number of people saying it was unimportant and inconsequential.
While I want to side with those who yawn and say "so what?" I know that Randi's announcement is important and should be recognised. Of course it shouldn't matter that he's gay, but unfortunately, to the majority of people in North America, it does. Saying it's unimportant is only sweeping the issue out of sight in the hopes that the opponents of sexual freedom (sounds nefarious :P) will lose power.
For those to whom sexual orientation truly does not matter -and by the way, if your motto is "so long as they don't hit on me" then it does still matter to you- it is sometimes easy to forget how society at large still sees homosexuals (and other LGBT's). Even if we ignore the non-Western treatment of LGBT, which often still include death penalties, there is still a majority which is biased against those who aren't straight.
Despite how this may read I am not trying to cause guilt. This is just a reminder that we are not "over" the gay issue any more than we are over race or gender.
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