It's obvious from Jim's comments that homophobia and ignorance are still rampant in the IT world or at least in Jim's organization.

I have sat in many IT meetings in the past where a gay joke or comment will still be laughed at while a joke regarding race or gender would never be tolerated. If individuals like Jim would open his mind and realize that comments and attitudes expressed in his reply cause a great deal of stress and difficulty for gay and lesbian employees. We still feel the need to hide our orientation in the IT world due the homophobic attitudes still prevalent especially in older or closed minded people. There have been many of Jim's type of people in my career that I would have totally respected and would have welcomed as a mentor. However, I would not invest the energy to hide my orientation (remembering to change pronouns, etc), to spend the time with that person.

It amazes me that in this day and age that someone can honestly believe that gay and lesbian "choose" the lifestyle. Why anyone would choose to be gay and be forced to deal with homophobes like Jim that could negatively affect our careers. My other question is why it bothers Jim so much? He has obviously spent a great deal of time thinking about gay people to craft such a hateful response. Hmmm....