I was browsing through the local AM news radio station's website this morning, which I find to be one of the better sources of timely local news, despite its less than insightful writing typically filled with grammatical and spelling errors.
On occasion I look over at the national and international columns to see if there's anything I missed in the bigger news sources, and I did so this morning, to see a mention of the first annual North America Outgames, which apparently slipped past me earlier in the week on CBC.
Now I've made it known before that I have no issues with people's lifestyle choices, so long as they don't adversely affect others, in ways beyond just making them uncomfortable for whatever reason. But when groups of whatever minority or belief go out and bitch to society about not being more broadly accepted or feeling segregated, and then create for themselves an event like this, you have to wonder what they really want.
Are they saying that being gay makes them uncompetitive in sports on other levels? The valid (and correct) argument is that gay people are no different than anyone else save for their lifestyle choice. Are they intentionally trying to draw parallels between themselves and those that truly are disadvantaged, for whom the Special Olympics was created?
If you want to do a better job of being accepted rather than shunned by certain communities, it would seem like a good idea to stop perpetuating mentalities of difference where really none exists. If you can't hack it as an athlete, you can't hack it, go on and find your calling elsewhere. Its not prejudice that's keeping you from Olympic gold.