Day to day living

Hey, guys. Life is good... can't really complain... Just thought I'd throw something out there to ponder.Before I decided to come out "for good," I was plagued by interpersonal conflict related to my sexual orientation. Gay guys realized I was gay and seemed to resent the fact that I was trying to live life with one foot still in the closet. And straight guys appeared to be overly cautious about getting too close to a guy without a woman in his life because most of them had at least one negative experience in their past with a gay guy wanting more from them than just friendship.
I thought that my interpersonal struggles would be over once I came out and established my presence in the gay community as "definitely gay," and, to tell you the truth, personal relations have gotten better since I stopped trying to pretend. But there are times that I find myself thinking that some of the gay men in my life are more unyielding in their application of "gay" stereotypes to other gay men than straight guys are. They just don't seem to be able to "get it" when I object to the "hey gurl" attitude, and usually come back with something like, "Well, you don't have to be such a bitch about it."
I realize, of course, that I can't expect every other gay man to want to be just like me any more than they can expect me to want to be just like them. We're all different... all unique... each of us with our own histories of trials and struggles that have made us who we are. So, the bottom line is that our search for tolerance and acceptance by others in our day to day reality doesn't end when we step into a gay existence with both feet. But we do have the benefit of responding to others from the vantage point of "the man that I am" rather than "the man that I have to pretend to be for others to like me."
Take care,Grady