I saw the show “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” the other night. Then I read this piece in the American Prospect on the new gay minstrelsy. Yesterday I saw Andrew Sullivan’s piece on they gay subculture known as “da bears”. All this comes on the heels of the Supreme Court’s Lawrence decision, the debate over the gay Anglican bishop, polls reporting an anti-gay backlash, cover stories on gay marriage in the Weekly Standard as well as major national newsweeklies, President Bush’s comments on gay marriage and, perhaps most notoriously, Rick Santorum’s comments on same-sex sex. And I can’t help but think, are we really talking about a mere 3% of the population? Lots of readers on all sides of this debate will take what I’m about to say the wrong way, but when it comes to gay issues, would we all benefit from — as Pat Moynihan once said — a period of “benign neglect”?