Mr Clemons, God bless you for this column. I have never once in my life failed to understand how enormously fortunate I was to have two parents who, when I told them that I was gay at the age of 16, basically shrugged and went on with their lives (the fact that my mother was an art school graduate, which meant that I was absolutely not the first gay person she had ever met, probably didn't hurt). I have lived in Europe now for 20 years after growing up in Chicago, and I am absolutely horrified at what the "religious right" are doing to the country of my birth. And even more horrified that the country's leaders find it necessary to pander to this bigotry. I say again -- God bless you, and thank you. And greetings to your friend.

Steve,

Wow. First of all, Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

But seriously, your post was front-paged on Huffington Post and then put on the front page yesterday of Digg and has more than 950 diggs. That's serious blog status.

Your steady resolve on issues you care about and your humanity grab people's hearts and minds. Your post helped my family which unfortunately doesn't have any gay members though we'd welcome them nonetheless have a warmer, closer, loving holiday than we would have done on our own.

I can't speak for all your readers, just a good chunk of them, and we love you for what you do and how you share with us more than we'd be able to see on our own.

happy holidays Mr. Clemons!