Veronica hits the nail on the head with "part of why we are so understanding of differences here is that many of us are not "anonymous." We've met, we've ridden together. We are a "community." Even those we've never met, we feel like we know."

Most prejuidice I feel is based on fear, people fear the unknown, avoid it, which then easily becomes "us vs. them". So folks think they don't know any Gay folk and fear that. I know lots and lots of Christians (Half my family. Has anyone in my family married a nice Jewish boy/girl?) but none well that are conservative.

Here we get to ride together, even those who are nowhere nearby share that it feels less alone because we share out experiences of rides .... and share cookies. We find out we have lots in common not just the bikes.

maybe if more people did this.....

Now I need to go find matching socks.