I'm a firm believer in the phrase, "Two wrongs don't make a right." Here's another little ditty I enjoy: "Treat others as you would like to be treated."

We, as homosexuals, are sometimes treated as second-class citizens, discriminated against and often seen as sick or disturbed by certain religions based organizations. The emotional and mental effect is down right staggering.

As a result, we have created numerous organizations to battle this kind of treatment on a daily basis. We want others to sympathize with us, to understand the kind of scrutiny we face. We want an equal playing field on which to live our lives and yet, some of us take things to such an extreme, or should I say obtuse, angle that we undoubtedly don't need to go to.

In Australia a gay pub in the city of Melbourne has won the right to ban heterosexuals - the first time such a decision has been made in Australia. The Victorian state civil and administrative tribunal ruled the Peel Hotel could ban patrons based on their sexual orientation.

The pub's management said the move would stop groups of heterosexual men and women from abusing gay people.

"If I can limit the number of heterosexuals entering the Peel, then that helps me keep the safe balance," the hotel's manager, Tom McFeely, told Australian radio, according to the Reuters news agency.

Banning heterosexuals? Sounds like a case of heterophobia to me…

As a homosexual, I find this disheartening for a couple of reasons. First, I'm shocked that this pub felt the need to create a "safe" environment for gay individuals in the first place and that said "safe" environment required banning straight people in order to make it "safe." Second, how does this help us reach that level playing field that we constantly seek from straight-oriented institutions? How can we maintain the mantra that we are all created equal, and that gay people deserve to be treated the same as straight people when we start barring others from our own institutions simply for being of a different sexual orientation?

Is this what things are coming to?

I understand the need for safety, and for a peaceful place in which we can go to feel a part of a community without the fear of being discriminated against, but why do we have to discriminate in order to secure such a place? Our gay community here in the city of Buffalo is extremely small. I choose not to go to Chippewa bars, not for fear of discrimination, but because it's not my thing. Instead, I go to Allen St., which is filled with dive bars, coffee shops and a few gay bars. I feel comfortable there, it's more my style. And I know plenty of straight people who visit the same establishments as I do. There's no stigma attached, no "gay only" label. And that's the way it should be. I have the option to go where I want to go, straight, gay, brown, purple, or what not, and others enjoy the same freedom.

How would the GLBT community react if a straight bar in a popular city decided to ban gay people? Would there be an uproar? Of course there would be.

We can't ask for certain rights and then turn around and deny those same rights to others. It's like beating your head against a brick wall - It won't get you anywhere.

All you'll be left with is a headache and a view that never changes.