I cannot say that I am a big fan of Bill Maher’s program on HBO. I actually do not watch it, for I like balance, and the program is anything but balanced.

The other night I was waiting for a movie on HBO, and watched the last few minutes of Maher’s lopsided tour de force. Suddenly he cuts into a conversation and says, “by the way, gay marriage passed in New York”. The public applauded as if they had all won the lottery!!!

Sorry, I find that reaction to be highly hypocritical.

I wonder if Maher said, “by the way, all of your fathers have just come out of the closet”, if the public’s reaction would be so overwhelmingly enthusiastic!

You see, applauding gay marriage is one thing, actually dealing with homosexuality close to home, altogether, another.

Ok, so maybe I am judging. Not only that, it would also be an impossibility for the fathers of everyone in the audience to decide to come out of the closet on the same day. Call my exaggeration poetic liberty. I am trying to make a point.

The audience’s behavior is thus a two measure scale.

I have a neighbor, who incidentally has a different nationality and religion than me, as well as a different financial standing. He used to say, when we moved in the building “what nice neighbors, I will invite you to dinner one of these days.” in a very condescending way. Well, six years down the line, we, the South Americans across the hall are still waiting for the invite. He has already intruded into my home a few times, to make building politics, but have yet to receive invites to enter his tonier abode.

Same principle. My patronizing neighbor has all the right bumper stickers, says the nice things to his nice South American neighbors, and probably watches Bill Maher just the same, but it is so evident that he does not really mean half of what he says. No action, just cheap talk and senseless posturing.

It is indeed sad that people cannot really be themselves, they rather fit into stereotypical templates. After all, being yourself is the most important human right of all.