Not for gays only: we know, we know. Gay bars have been our private havens. But when we try to keep other people out, how's that different from the same prejudice we claim to hate?

A month after owners of a gay bar in Melbourne won the right to keep heterosexuals out, Advocate readers are furiously arguing whether gays in America should follow suit. If you missed it, the Australian story went like this: A tribunal granted the Peel nightclub's petition to go gay-only because hetero customers were crowding in to view the bar's gay regulars like animals in a zoo.

Nobody thinks it's OK to treat us as exhibits. But we figured that in egalitarian America, where gays are struggling for equal access to all things heterosexual, our readers wouldn't endorse keeping straights off our dance floors. We were wrong.

In mid June we posted this online poll question: Do gay bars have the right to prohibit straight patrons? With more than 5,200 respondents at press time, a whopping 76.7% of you voted yes: We have the right to kick the straight folks out.

Here's what they called that idea when whites wanted to prevent blacks from drinking at the same water fountains: racism.

The fears that drive us to retreat behind closed doors may be human. But they're ugly, and they're not worthy of LGBT Americans. Yes, we are still the objects of scorn and sometimes of violence. Yes, we feel the need of a place to be ourselves without being judged. But we long ago told mainstream society that we're here and queer. It turns out they're not the only ones who need to get used to it.

Estimable gay thinkers have written elegies for gay culture--the old secret club, with its rituals and codes. If we're old enough to remember those days, we may well miss the drama. But now that we've come out, there's no going back in. We can't pick and choose who sees us and who doesn't.

Our "bar the straights" respondents seemed to feel that heterosexuals in general mean us harm--or at least that if we allow the nice straights in, we'd have no defense against the bad ones. Surely we're not such victims as that.

Sure, some straight people may invade our turf in order to harm us, but far more come because (not to be biased) we throw the best parties. So what are we afraid of? Making more friends?

We hope you'll consider sharing your gay haunts with your hetero neighbors. It's the right thing to do. And if you still yearn for an all-gay environment, there's always the gym.