I do certainly agree with what Dante said. That was a lesson in Realism 101: You just cannot expect every member of any particular group to always espouse beliefs, stances, or general behavior that is considered likeable or good by society's standards. In fact, every group of people will have their share of outright unsavory, severely mentally disturbed, and criminal individuals.

But after acknowledging that, I would admit that during a time when a particular group is most hated and marginalized, and most of them are driven into hiding, I do believe it would not do any favors for the group as a whole if one or more of the truly unscrupulous or unlikeable among them were the only one (or ones) who were coming out of the closet. In that type of situation, such individuals would most definitely be used against the group as a whole, or promoted by the media and naysayers as "typical" members of the group. So I do believe that many kind, productive, and positive individuals in the MAP community would need to be "out" simultaneously with any of the less savory or scrupulous among us before society could truly "get over" their overwhelmingly negative attitudes towards us as a group.

I understand there are some truly negative members of the MAP community, but that is simply a sign that MAPs as a group are human, not that there is something particularly unsavory about us compared to other groups of humans. But like all other groups, these individuals constitute a very small fraction of our number, and I never fail to be impressed with the number of fellow MAPs I have met through the many years of my association with the greater community who are completely sane and ethically upright people despite what we have to deal with in society right now.

And of course, it's to be expected that many within our group, while not bad people by any means, would be dysfunctional and have emotional issues... considering the constant hatred and vicious stigma aimed at us, forcing the vast majority of us to feel we must hide the nature of our feelings in order to survive and enjoy any kind of productive life and love from our fellow humans, is it in any way fair or realistic to expect otherwise from any group of people who may be forced to live as we currently do?