There, I said it. I can appreciate one’s creativity, I can appreciate one’s work ethic, I can appreciate one’s mental fortitude, but I cannot (and shouldn’t be required to) appreciate someone’s sexuality. Call me old-fashioned, but I don’t believe that somebody’s sexual preferences should define them. The fact that I like women, doesn’t determine who I am as a man… My principles do. Am I so wrong as to think that the same litmus test should apply across the board?

So we all know about the “Perez Hilton/Miss U.S.A” fiasco. Perez carried out a low-down, dirty trick by asking a political question (a practice from which the judges are strictly forbidden) in regards to Proposition 8. He did so in an attempt to demonize a Christian contestant knowing full well that she held the institution of marriage as being exclusive to “a man and a woman.”

Now Perez could have chosen from a multitude of more appropriate questions to ask, yet (as always), it comes back to some sort of question about sexuality.

Why? Why does the “gay lifestyle” always have to be about sexual preferences, at least according to self-deemed “gay ambassadors” such as Hilton?

If the goal is to normalize the gay lifestyle, shouldn’t your attraction to members of the same sex simply be incidental? Couldn’t you be a gay carpenter, a gay surfer or gay log-home enthusiast? Why does being gay in the public eye have to start and end with sexuality?

To be honest, I think that the gay community’s been hijacked by people like Perez Hilton for far too long. Most people (gay or straight) would be disgusted by his website, YouTube videos (one of which involves him covering himself in peanut butter with sexual overtones) or his size XXXL T-shirts riddled with vulgar slogans.

Gay or straight, things like that (along with his recent treatment of Miss California) go against common decency, and we should be able to recognize that regardless of his sexuality.

Perez Hilton sets a terrible example for the gay community and I would think that gay folks should be even more outraged than the rest of us. A guy like him can set progress back 20 years.

Do people understand, that conservatives aren’t rejecting the right to personal choice, but we’re rejecting the incentive to push a hyper-sexually charged message to the public? Yet if we state the obvious, we have the “homophobe” card thrown at us faster than a duck on a junebug.

Wrong is wrong, despite whatever is currently on the politically correct menu. What Perez Hilton did (which has nothing to do with gay marriage in itself) was wrong. His comments afterward were wrong.

I don’t judge people based on race, gender or sexual orientation, and I will no longer hear liberals accuse conservatives of doing so every time they rightfully make a moral judgment based on careless (or in this case, pre-meditated and mean-spirited) actions.

“By the content of his character,” I say.

“Oh, but you need to appreciate me for who I am!” – Okay, Perez Hilton. You’re a jack-ass. Consider it done.