Gay men vs lesbians and the right to express affection

Syndicated columnist Leonard Pitts, Jr. recently wrote this piece regarding the 'controversy' over the return of a gay US Marine and the reception he received, which included the kissing of his sweetheart, who in fact turned out to be a man. But what Mr. Pitts may not have known about was that a gay military couple had already done the same thing back in 2011 almost immediately after "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was abolished. Only in that case, the couple was female, the reception was official, and there was not a peep of outrage or controversy over it.

I doubt the Navy would have dared stage such an event with two men as the couple. There seems to me to be a huge double-standard regarding these things. Affection like this (even a relatively chaste kiss) between two women is considered fine (if not also cute or to some, titillating). Lesbians often show affection and their relationship status publicly by kissing and hand-holding without much fear of reprisal from bystanders while gay men wouldn't dare show the same level of affection in typical public places for fear of being 'bashed', admonished, or taunted aggressively by total strangers.

Male equality will not be achieved until men are accepted for who and what they are (criminality aside, of course-- safe to assume we do not accept people's behavior if it includes violence and other obvious forms of overt antisocial behavior). If a man is gay, then he's gay, just as if a woman is gay, then she ought to be accepted as such. But all people regardless of sexual orientation should have the same rights as anyone else-- neither more rights, nor fewer rights. The real controversies exist when people of some given sexual orientation get more rights or are more accepted than others. Assuming tomorrow that all other planks in the MRA platform are achieved, there will still not be equality between the sexes until gay men are as readily accepted in popular culture/society as are gay women. But if a society is going to condemn homosexuality collectively by majority sentiment or decision, it should not be 'more condemnable' if the homosexuals in question just happen to be male, which, it seems to me, is closer to where we're at right now than anything else.

Let's see just how many comments this thread will generate. :)