Facebook "Closets"?

Facebook "closet" homosexuals?  I'm talking about the guys who leave the "Interested In" section of their profile information blank.  You know, where the hetero guys put "women," and the hetero girls put "men."  But what about that guy who leaves it ambiguously empty?  Was he just too lazy, too uninterested in the question, to take the time to fill it out?  Was it that taxing of a mental challenge that he did not have the strength to type "women" or "men"?

I mean, don't get me wrong.  I'm not one of those who thinks that everyone should have to wear his sexuality on his sleeve like a scarlet "A" for the world to see.  There's no need for one to flaunt his sexual orientation.  But why so cryptic?  What do you have to hide?  Sadly, the answer to that question is, for many, a lot.

In this American society, what is there to be ashamed of for being straight?  No one cares.  Even in the most pious of circles, being straight is not an issue -- obviously.  If you're heterosexual, you've already met half of the requirements to get to heaven!  So why be so elusive?

Now, if you're gay, I can understand why you might decline to answer.  For all of us who live in big cities and think that discrimination based on sexual orientation is more or less a thing of the past, we just don't get out enough.  How do you think it is for that gay man in Bozeman, Montana*?  How accepted does the lesbian girl feel in Hickory, North Carolina*?

The truth is, most of America still discriminates against homosexuals.  And I'm not even talking legally, because our time will come, just like it has or will for every other minority group.  But what I'm talking about is social discrimination.  Discrimination within the family, discrimination within religious groups, discrimination in the work place, discrimination at social gatherings, discrimination within pier groups:  let's not bamboozle ourselves.  Discrimination is alive and thriving.  And don't let me miss an opportunity to throw this out there, too:  not just sexual discrimination, but racial discrimination as well!

So for a gay man who doesn't want to face the discrimination, I can completely understand his leaving the question blank.  Why make it an issue?  Does this one question define who/what he is?  Why should he have to face discrimination because he answered a question on his facebook profile?

But, I still wanna know ... is he gay?

So, Facebook "Closets"?  I don't know.  I only pose this question because I've noticed that as I get older, more and more of my friends leave this section on their profiles blank.  What are they trying to say?  Are they trying to hide anything?  Or is it just nothing at all?  Am I reading too much into it?




*I'm not making reference to any particular people, nor am I making reference to any particular discrimination.  I only picked these cities/towns as examples of smaller, American communities; and not as locations of covert or overt sexual discrimination.