Well, here in no particular order are three reasons that come quickly to mind:

1. I don't even know what scale is being used. For example, does 1 equal "Pass for Straight" and 10 equal "Can't Even Think Straight"? Or does 1 equal "Wear Lipstick and a Skirt" and 10 equal "Play Rugby To Relax"?

2. Most of the people that ask you the question have already determined your answer for you basedupon what you're wearing, and that isn't fair at all because when you left the house that morning you didn't know you were dressing for a Gay Pride test. (Though if you had been paying attention to the calendar and knew it was June you might have.)

3. The question is far too simplistic to serve any useful purpose. Not only does it not take into account the complexities of gender identity and sexual expression, it unnaturally divides the GLBTQ community into even tinier little labeled boxes.

Now, you might think I'm exaggerating here--throwing in a little histrionics, hyperbole, or just plain gay drama--but no. This "How gay are you?" scenario is being played out all around me and all around you, too,  whether you've paid much attention or not.

For example, here are a few of the little skirmishes being played out around town:

1.     

A- What do you mean "family friendly" PRIDE? Gay people don't like kids.

B- How can a community that calls themselves "Family" not welcome our kids?
 
2. 

A- We want the world to see we're just like everybody else.

B- We're here, we're queer, get used to it.
 
3.     

A- This long sleeve cotton western shirt and this straw hat keep me cool in the Texas heat.

B- In this heat I want as much of me catching the breeze as I can get--Does this thong make me look fat?
 
Y'all, it's only June 2, but if you haven't heard that kind of bickering already, you haven't been listening.
 
I realize that once again I'm in serious danger of losing my point in all this rambling, so let me just cut right to it: We can do better than all this bickering.
 
Austin PRIDE kicks off Thursday evening with the 2010 Multifaith PRIDE Service at Unity Church of the Hills at 7:00. The theme for this year's service is "We Are the Light of Love," and I think it's a theme that is both appropriate and challenging. In fact, in light of all I've written above, I think we will need some divine intervention if we are, indeed, to be the light of love.
 
As much as we talk about the need to affirm and celebrate diversity in the world, we often forget that we also must seek to affirm and celebrate diversity within our own GLBTQ community.  We get wrongly focused until we can only see the ways in which we are different, and those differences often make us uncomfortable with and sometimes even unkind to one another.
 
If we are going to be the light of love, we are going to need a revolution as real as the one that began at Stonewall 40 plus yearsago. We are going to need a revolution like the one Carter Heyward invites us to in Our Passion for Justice:  
 
"To say I love you is to say that you are not mine, but rather your own. To love you is to advocate your rights, your space, your self, and to struggle with you, rather than against you, in our learning to claim our power in the world....
 
To love you is to be pushed by a power/God both terrifying and comforting, to touch and be touched by you...To love you is to sing with you, cry with you, pray with you, and act with you to re-create the world.
 
To say 'I love you' means--let the revolution begin!'"
 
Happy PRIDE!