And there aren't any disabled GAY AMERICANS??? Give me a break.  You got your ramps, rights?  We gay AMERICANS that worrk and pay taxes, have got NOTHING>>>>>>>>   Yes, AMERICA, there are GAY DISABLED AMERICANS, TOO...

I am a gay person with autism and I am also albino with photophobia. I am discriminated against not just because I am gay, but also because I have to wear sunglasses to prevent damage to my eyes, as well as have problems understanding certian social interactions between myself and others. Being gay only makes the situations worse.

I don't think it is even close.  I'm not saying that the disabled do not face challenges, or even discrimination.  But gays have a federal law (DOMA) that legislates and makes it legal to discriminate against gays.  On the other hand, the  Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 protects the disabled, as do a number of other laws.

I think it depends on whether you look at laws (intentions) and outcome. I think the disabled have, on average, much poorer outcomes. Unemployment, housing, poverty, access to transit, etc. ADA seems to be pretty useless. And both groups get hate crimes against them.

Also, if you look at legislation, SSI is nowhere near high enough to live on, and the supports aren't in place to get the employment rate up to anything reasonable. So in a way that's legislated poverty.

My gay brother, who lives in Toronto, not the US, has told me doesn't feel like he's really discriminated against. He certainly hasn't had the kinds of problems I've had as a cripple.

This is not to say, though, that GLBTs don't have serious problems. They do, obviously.

The bottom line is that you can be fired for being gay.  There are no protections.  There are laws to protect you from being fired for being disabled.  Again, I am not saying those laws, or their enforcement, are perfect.  But at least they EXIST, as opposed to having laws that actively discriminate against gays. That says a lot about attitudes.  Gays cannot adpot children in many places, the disabled can.  Gays cannot visit each other in the hospital, cannot both have custody of the children in their family. I amnot saying there is not disctimination against disabled people.  I am saying it is a whole other level to have that discrimation legalized. And it is a whole lot different being gay in Canada. 

It occurred to me to present this in a different way.  Is it acceptable to march in the streets holding signs that say, "Kill the Disabled"? Do you ever see signs that say the disabled are an abomination to God?  Are the disabled prevented from being part of the clergy in any religion? Is it acceptable to promote the idea that the disabled are not fit to teach children in the schools?  These are all examples of overt, institutionalized discrimination against gays. 

The discrimination against disabled people DOES exist, and in a way it is even harder to fight against than discrimination against gays.  Because discrimination against the disabled has moved to the covert level.  But in a perverse way, that is a sign of progress.  It is not generally socially acceptable to discriminate against the disabled, but it is still socially acceptable in many groups, including the government, to discriminate against gays.

I agree that being gay is probably a lot easier in Canada, and that I may be missing some of the horror that gays experience in the US.

However, I really don't think you should be pitting the two groups against each other like this. I will say, though, that the status of the disabled is so low in some parts that there is no need to demonstrate, as you suggest, since those attitudes are sometimes taken as a given by educated people. For example, people do "mercy-kill" us and, at times, get off without being charged. Sometimes the people who kill cripples are offered sympathy for *their* sufferings.

I think that unless you've seen a good chunk of what each group experiences, it's hard to judge fairly. And as I said above, I may simply not be aware of horrors in the US that don't exist in Canada. So that's all I'll say.

I don't think it is pitting against each other at all!  I think it is important to acknowledge both the gains that have been made against discrimination, and the work that is still to be done.  Groups can understand each other much better if they talk to each other, and I see this kind of communication as just that.

When was the last time you had a Buddhist or Muslim try to pass a law that would put you in jail? For not following their beliefs? Christians should stop pushing their bull on others.....

Wow! good job making Her point for Her Cherokee!

It is easy to paint yourself a victim when you are part of the privileged majority. The fact is Christianity has run ramped in this country, and over 70% of this country calls it self christian. Anti-humane, and Anti-gay bills are passed, people are stripped of their fundamental rights, and everyday five hours an innocent person take their life because of the discrimination and bigotry passed on by the privileged majority.

Christians are discriminated against - what - that they can't turn our country into a christian theocracy.  Although they do quite well - their extremist element does , in making the gay citizens the "new Jews", and the new [n-words] of our society.

I know many good christians.  But this "we are discriminated against" comment actually is nothing but a claim of victimization by those who in many cases actually are the victimizers themselves.  Every good christian should ask themselves how they are victimized, other then not being allowed to force their beliefs on others in our public schools, and under our civil laws.

And this victimization conspiracy game has an ugly history.  It was one of the key ways that a maniac rallied his distraught people against the Jews - calling them money grubbers, communists etc.  It worked so well.  He was elected leader of his country, and 50 million people were murdered, including Jesus own people the Jews in the holocaust.

And guess who also went up hitlers smokestacks - the gays of Germany.

So I implore all our christian friendsd -  to recognize the so subtle but so clever way they are being used.  By people who would turn our nation into a christian theocracy, and of course, with 200 variants of christian belief in this nation, including a dozen major faiths, what makes you sure you would be on the winning side.  Of which another example is the history of Northern Ireland, where it seemed to me in decades past that people so close in their beliefs would hate each other, and murder each other, in the name of God.

The danger is that we end up in a race to the bottom - where every group tries to be more and more fundamentalist. And that has happened in a sister religon already.  People who believe in the same God, see Jesus as one of the great Prophets etc.  And whose theocracy, filled with utter control freakism, total paranoia over losing complete control of their society, gave us a great reminder not so long ago of how theocracies evolve.  The date was 9/11.

the greatest problem with democracies is that the majority can tyrannze the minority.  It is behind the hatred - that is what it is of gay people, it was behind the help wanted signs in the 1930s  that said "Jews and colored need not apply"  And it was behind slavery and segregation - of which the So Baptist church was formed in the early1800s to support this abomination, and which created the abomination called segregation, enforced by a terroist group called the KKK.

Jesus must weep for what He sees happening in America. Where his name is and has been used to justify denigration and thd denial of the humanity of minority groups.  And God will Judge you if you do not use the brain God gave you, and sell your very soul to those people who turn his name into a Power structure interested only in controlling minds, utilizing the driving of fear of people you don't really know, to provoke  hatred against part of His creation.

Try being a disabled non-Christian lesbian in poverty - even worse. That's what I am.