Sometimes, I think I’m the only G, L, B, or T person left in the world who is still angry about our status as second-class citizens. As soon as Will & Grace debuted eight years ago, it seems that our outrage was mollified, that all we ever needed was to see two handsome men playing gay on the small screen, alongside a hedonistic female office assistant with a grating voice, and an insecure fag-hag best friend. Maybe after the show’s final episode, we’ll all get back out on the streets with picket signs and T-shirts emblazoned with slogans like "Silence Equals Death," but somehow, I doubt it. We’ll probably just latch onto the queer up-and-coming designers of Project Runway or check out GSN reruns for glimpses of Paul Lynde and Charles Nelson Reilly.

If you think homophobia, ignorance, and hate have had their day, think again. They’re just getting started. Look no further than something as seemingly innocuous as an interactive Internet game. I’ve become addicted to isketch.net, a "Pictionary" or "Win, Lose or Draw" type game in which you compete with other players from across America. You can even converse with fellow players in a little chat room-like box at the bottom of the screen. By now, I’ve played more games than I care to count. Most people use the chat area to send "high fives" and commiserate with the challenges of using your mouse to sketch a palm tree or a squid. But I am not exaggerating when I say that in almost every single game, some asinine player begins throwing around charming epithets like "faggot," "gay," or "cocksucker." I have yet to encounter a racial or gender slam. Apparently, it is no longer socially acceptable to discriminate based on race or sex, but it’s still open season on GLBT persons.

Many players are teenagers, and at first you could almost excuse their ignorant verbal attacks for that reason. But when you consider that many GLBT teenagers are also playing, probably every bit as uncomfortable with their sexuality as I was at their age, it makes your skin crawl and your blood pressure rise. It also makes you wonder, if you cannot even participate in an innocent game without being attacked for who you are, is there any "safe space" in this world for us? I’m all too familiar with the old "sticks and stones" saying, but it’s not that simple, especially when you’re dealing with fragile egos and fledgling psyches already stunted by the darkness of the closet. According to the Gay Straight Lesbian Education Network (GLSEN), 90% of GLBT students report that they have been harassed or assaulted during the past year at school. In addition, they’re frequently assaulted when trying to escape in a "fun" Internet game.

Sadly, some people will do anything to make their uninformed opinions on GLBT people heard. In a recent speech, a college student asked President Bush if he had seen Brokeback Mountain and what he thought about the film. President Bush giggled a little and said he hadn’t seen the film and could offer no opinion on it. The questioner’s intent, judging by the tone of his voice and the audible guffaws from the conservative audience, could not have been more obvious.

He was hoping that the leader of the free world would spout off more anti-gay gibberish to impress upon the minds of millions of teenagers and adults alike that some prejudice is all right, that dismissing an entire segment of the American population in a few trite words is acceptable. According to Margaret Cho’s website, cinemas in Utah and Washington pulled Brokeback Mountain from theaters after the Conference of Catholic Bishops assigned it an "O" rating for morally offensive. These theaters would not show a tender gay love story heavily cushioned by heterosexual romance, but they did screen the horror movie Hostel, in which teenagers become victims of a torture ring and chainsaws, and Grandma’s Boy, whose tagline reads "Sex. Drugs. Nakedness. Rude Language. And Proud of It."

Even as I write this column, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) is engaging in talks with the producers of American Idol, regarding its representation of GLBT contestants on television’s number one show. With tens of millions of teenagers tuning in each week, the show must make a huge impression on young minds, and the producers are doing nothing for the GLBT cause. I confess that Idol is the only show I watch religiously during the entire television season. I laugh. I cry. It’s better than Cats. But I, too, have been offended by this season’s questionable judges’ comments about gender expression, sexuality, and even body weight. They should be judging singing voices, not plucked eyebrows on a man’s face, some "sugar" in his walk, or extra pounds on a young girl’s body. I offer kudos to GLAAD for its bold confrontation of this media and marketing giant, but I shed a tear when I think that we have to fight the good fight at such a base level.

I like Idol, although I don’t like bumper stickers. I’m not a big fan of people who wear their hearts on their sleeves or their political opinions on the rear ends of their automobiles. But I do love the one bumper sticker that reads, "If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention." If you take a little time each day to examine the world around you, I guarantee that you’ll be outraged, too. In addition to the second-class status of GLBT citizens, I also become outraged about arrogant American foreign policy, animal cruelty, corporate greed, racial and gender discrimination, and people who are just plain lazy and apathetic. When it comes to oppression, we must remain vigilant without becoming bitter, and that’s a very difficult balance to maintain.

We must remember that there have been ignorant bullies on the playground of the world since the beginning of time, and we must foster our sense of humor. Action is another vital component to this balance. If you’re outraged like me, get out there and do something about it. Trust me, you’ll feel a lot better, and the world will be a better place for it.