Well I finally pulled out of my funk with a little help from my friends. Actually with a lot of help, but that's not how the song goes.
I am very fortunate to have friends who refuse to lose hope and who do everything they can to realign the framework so that you can see things in perspective. I've resolved to pass their help to others.
When I first saw Robert Vanderbie's Purple America, sent to me by a friend, I didn't realize the significance of what I was looking at. The color purple just made me think about how much it cost us to have gays on our little foundering raft. Fortunately the backlash was temporary and localized to my person. I am completely restored to my faith in humanism. I blogged the (slow) progress of my understanding of Vanderbie's map here.