I totally agree that gay men are more at risk of homophobia, but lesbians get it as well, a lot of time it's done in a different way - 'she just needs a good shag' etc. My mum has had it all.
I have experienced that (and more) but it is nothing compared to what my gay male friends have experienced. It's much easier to turn a blind eye to comments like that than it is to bricks being out through your car window etc.
We live in a working class area - after recently moving from a middle class area - and we have not had even a single comment since we moved here. We had comments a lot before we moved (made by groups of teenage boys etc, you can imagine, crude comments made to make their friends laugh but not really harmful) and found that our neighbours would avoid us, and our landlady was also homophobic - it was subtle, but obvious. Here, we have quite a good relationship with our neighbours. We were welcomed into our community with open arms. However, my gay male friends have never had that. Each time they move house they move into unknown territory and are like moving targets for abuse. One of the main reasons we can all think of for that is that real homophobia normally comes from people of the same gender as you, and *most* women are not as ruthless as men are (unless they are Janine for eastenders. lol) and men are willing to beat up and attack and maybe even kill or leave for dead, gay men. There is also a big problem with men who are in the closet and in denial about their own sexuality and violence towards other, openly gay, men. I find that with *some* of my straight female acquaintances I 'freak them out' because they think I fancy every woman I meet. Their reaction is not major though. Whereas with a gay man, if another bloke thinks the gay man fancies him, they react very differently. Does that make sense?
As far as gay people having children goes - I think that yes, if you believe you can provide the right environment for a child to thrive in, having a child is a natural thing for all humans. I also find that my gay friends who have a child or are ttc are often slightly older and in a better financial position - there are no accidental babies in my world, which is what I think does sometimes give gay parents a slight "edge". I'm not saying accidental babies are unwanted etc, I am saying that my child, for example, and any children I go on to have, are very very wanted. Getting pregnant is hard when you're a lesbian - you have to really want a baby to be prepared to go through the stuff you have to do.
I will admit to having a slightly different stance on gay men being parents though. I have a few gay male friends who would be absolutely brilliant Dad's and their children would want for nothing; however, from the top of my head, I can think of three of my "friends" who I don't believe should have children. There has been a massive "gayby" boom in recent years, obviously lesbians are having children more than gay men are, and there is a very large amount of jealousy in the gay community because of that. It is relatively easy for a lesbian couple to find a sperm donor, in comparison to the hardship a gay couple will encounter when finding a surrogate to carry their child. My partner and I and our daughter have been victims of a gay man whose jealous got the best of him - he stalked us, said hideous things about our child, wished her dead, wished us both dead, and in the end was evicted from his flat (he lived above us) because of it. I am really wary of being friends with gay men who have no children but want them now because of him - I know it sounds small minded, but I know of at least two more men who have had a similar reaction - not to us, but to other friends of theirs who are lesbians who have had children. There is a lot of rivalry and a big divide in the gay community between gay men and women anyway (generally, we "dislike" each other) and the issue of having children is making it a lot worse.
It is easier for a lesbian couple to adopt, easier for them to foster, easier to get pregnant and have babies. We don't encounter homophobia on the same scale. There is also a trend of gay men having children because "their friends have" i.e babies are the latest fashion accessory - I know this is not true of the entire gay male population but it is definitely true of the majority of gay men I know
There are LOADS of categories which preclude people from giving blood and tbh I don't see any discrimination in any of them - I was a regular donor before I was ill but I just accept that they don't want to take any risks, even an unproven one, and am grateful for that on behalf of those who need transfusions
