This is a great post. I think its very true that as long as you keep your "shameful" behaviors on the DL, it's considered fine. But I don't think it's that way in America only. It's a little less that way in Europe perhaps but it's that way ALL OVER THE WORLD. Every country has its own "shameful" behaviors. Perhaps in some places in Europe it's more shameful to smoke or to be Republican and so on. In other, more conservative, countries in the ME, Asia, Africa and so on there are even more disparities about what's considered wrong. To be honest, America is one of the more liberal societies out there, and people are forced to hide even more in the more conservative regions of the world.