Last week, an alliance of gay and straight high school students in Pikesville, Maryland organized events to encourage gay students to come out and straight students to support them. Members of a church protested the Coming Out Week events and used a bullhorn to make plain their belief that homosexuality is a sin.

Tonito Bandito posted a link to the story here. The students at Pikesville High responded with a rally of their own.

Many of the people who attended the rally commented at how many students openly support gay rights. "My gaydar is pretty good," said Anne Burgnaski, a senior at Carver high school. " Most of these students are not gay. It’s amazing."

We're basically a fair people. The vast majority of us, even in the "red" states feel that if you stay on the right side of the law, take care of your property, pay your taxes and are an American citizen, you deserve to be treated like an American. That basic sense of fairness is difficult to supress for any concerted length of time.

For a lot of people, a great many I think, the only language they have to discuss and interpret issues of the day with is the language they learn either directly or indirectly from the media. They can only speak the "conventional wisdom" or the arguments articulated in public on either side - even if the result is something less than satisfying to them. The fact that many gays have made their stories known has made a difference. It would be even better if more elected officials showed more leadership on the issue.

We here at Night Bird's Fountain miss Tonito and would like to see more of him. Every now and then, Tonito serves up some eye candy for his readers. Well, we've set out some eye candy of our own in order to intice him over for a visit.

Here you go Tonito, this candy is for you.

Happy Halloween :)