A Massachusetts stay-at-home mother of seven wrote a very plaintive missive on the internet this week.In a blog post on her website she outlined how the disgusting spectacle of gay families enjoying a nice day out a local public pool has left her terrified to the point she is now afraid to leave her own home 'I find myself unable to even leave the house anymore without worrying about what in tarnation we are going to encounter,' wrote Stacy Trasancos. 'We are responsible citizens. We live by the rules, we pay our taxes, we take care of our things. I'm supposed to be able to influence what goes on in my community, and as a voter I do exercise that right. But I'm outnumbered. I can't even go to normal places without having to sit silently and tolerate immorality. We all know what would happen if I asked two men or two women to stop displaying, right in front of me and my children, that they live in sodomy.'----------------------------------------------Since she's a mother of seven small children she admits she doesn't get out much, other than to Mass and the public pool. But now, thanks to those immoral sodomites, even that's been spoiled.And what were they up to, these infernal sodomites? Why, two men who had brought their kids to the park were 'effeminately rubbing elbows' she gasps. Another gay couple had hugged in a way that was 'clearly not friendly.'How too, too terribly terribly utterly utterly utter.Reading this, at first I thought it must be satire. I mean who on earth still says tarnation, for example? And, if gay people make you feel - that - uncomfortable, why would you live in the state of Massachusetts at all (one of the most avowedly progressive in the nation)?The level of her hostility and terror raised alarm bells. It seems so over the top. In my own life, after all, I've witnessed all manner of heterosexual displays involving physical affection (and a good deal more, frankly) since I was a boy. I've emerged pretty much unscathed. So why can't Stacy Trasancos?Understandably, her rant has gone viral now. And in the main people have remained respectful, whilst informing her she's a massive heel and trying to illustrate to her how close her fundamentalism is to that of the Taliban's.Some nutters have even posted some truly hateful, threatening words (but they're a small minority of the respondents she has received and she has, she says, recorded their IP's). It's unlikely, given the tone of the debate, that either side will cede an inch.But the point, for me, is that this unusual lady finds gay people actively unpleasant simply for being gay. That's before she even speaks to or comes to know them. Their very existence offends her, in fact.That's an unsettling level of bigotry. She'd prefer they didn't exist rather than give her offense. Her final solution is to stay home and lock the door.As for Massachusetts, in the past it took plenty of stick for abolishing slavery and for integrating its schools and for permitting gay marriage - but it also led the way, and the country followed. I think it'll survive her displeasure.Stacy Trasancos can lock her doors and raise her children to dislike and judge gay people, but she can't legislate them out of existence because their existence offends her faith.