JustJess

I think that if you look at this a little more with the long term shift in societal perceptions in mind, you might feel differently. No, of course I don't believe any one group should be pandered to and have more priviledges than other groups. However, in order for them to get to the status of 'just a person', they have to go through this growing phase. For a while, they only get regular rights by having some guilty-feeling liberals (in whatever era we're discussing, I believe, and I would be one of those) go overboard in protecting the group.

You can't deny that you are not representative of the whole country - there are plenty of people who think/believe/act as if gay people are going to hell, or blacks are not as good as whites, or women shouldn't be so outspoken(tho admittedly, this one is finally seeing some regular equality). So until EVERYONE is able to treat people as people, special concessions are made to try to even the scales.
Is this the best way? Not necessarily. But it may not be the worst way, either. I would be interested in knowing your ideas on how we can shift the societal perception more efficiently.

Edit: Hm, after reading Lurkette's post, I feel the need to clarify: I was mostly pinpointing dealing with discomfort and in general, the EOE laws and the like. Eventually, they won't need to be written on every job/apt/etc application, and will be a part of our social fabric. This is just a way to get there.

__________________
My heart knows me better than I know myself, so I'm gonna let it do all the talkin'.