DISCLAIMER: On a personal level male homosexuality makes me a tad more  uncomfortable while  lesbianism does not.  Possibly because I studied in all girls hostels and that was something I saw and dismissed with a shrug!  However I defend their right to live and love.

Gays do have a right to live free and with pride.  Its not new and definitely not unnatural.  Check out these quotes from the ancient world which seemed to be more tolerant than ours towards .

“Homosexuality,” Plato wrote, “is regarded as shameful by barbarians and by those who live under despotic governments just as philosophy is regarded as shameful by them, because it is apparently not in the interest of such rulers to have great ideas engendered in their subjects, or powerful friendships or passionate love-all of which homosexuality is particularly apt to produce.” This attitude of Plato’s was characteristic of the ancient world.

“Zeus came as an eagle to god like Ganymede and as a swan to the fair haired mother of Helen. One person prefers one gender, another the other, I like both.” Author unknown

Plutarch wrote , “No sensible person can imagine that the sexes differ in matters of love as they do in matters of clothing. The intelligent lover of beauty will be attracted to beauty in whichever gender he finds it.”

In ancient Rome gay men were not thought to be less masculine than straight men and lesbian women were not thought of as less feminine than straight women. Gay people were not thought to be any better or worse than straight people-an attitude which differed both from that of the society that preceded it, since many Greeks thought gay people were inherently better than straight people, and from that of the society which followed it, in which gay people were often thought to be inferior to others.

This tolerance in the times which we consider as barbaric?

I am glad that stupid law that persecuted gay people is under fire!  The cops have one less set of people to bully.