For us it is a lifestyle.
I am not going to become a political activist over it, but then again, I am not sure there is much of a reason to be. I do not consider it on the same plane as the civil rights nightmare that homesexuals have faced - and still face. I could certainly choose to leave the lifestyle if I needed to - and I can appear as 100% "vanilla" to people at work with very little trouble.
There isn't much parallel between homosexuals and swingers, except that what we do involves sex, IMHO.
Fortunately, we live in a country where we are relatively free to indulge our little kinks...
But even more fortunately, I am married to such an incredible woman that if I needed to leave the lifestyle, I could and not miss it much. My feeling is, what is the point of being politically active if their aren't people out there who are taking advantage of what you are fighting for? We are one of those couples who is taking advantage of it...
And it's good...
Spoomonkey