Be gay all you want, just hush up about it!

From the perspective of one person who- among other things- is gay, I agree with you almost completely on this. People reduce it to what they can clearly see which is that the major difference between heterosexuals and homosexuals is "sex". From a very basic perspective, that's true. But one thing that I think gets lost in the debate is that there is an emotional connection as well. Many people who are gay, just like many people who are straight, usually feel an emotional and loving connection with the person they are involved with, and some of us want to express that in a more committed way. That's where the problem arises. If I say I'm homosexual it means, to be completely accurate, I feel an attraction to a person of the same sex which is both emotionally and often sexually driven. Any heterosexual person, given an emotional and sexual attraction, may choose to legally define that relationship as a marriage and that marriage is given credibility by society, but such a privelege is not afforded to gay people. The problem with that is, if legislation is passed specifically forbidding gay people the right to marriage, that could open a Pandora's box where the powers that be can begin to tell you and anyone else they disagree with that you are not completely human, not completely equal, and all of that for something that you didn't choose in the first place.

I realize I'm a little off subject, but you want the homosexual thing to go away. It will. Given the opportunity to legally make decisions about who we have the right to spend the rest of our lives with in a union recognized by the government of which we are supposedly active members, you won't have to be burdened with homosexuality. The fact is that until such a thing happens, you as a human being should understand how a ruling body's decision concerning this could well affect you and yours in the future by allowing government to limit your rights as well, not just mine. It never ends with just one group.

All of that said, I wish we could get past the debate about either side of the subject and move on with our lives. It shouldn't have been dragged out this long. And I'll be the first to say, and I know a lot of gay people who would agree, I could care less about the "community" aspect of all of this. All I've ever wanted is to live a normal life, without being given a special set of amended rights because the person I choose to spend that life with doesn't meet the standards that other people feel are "moral" and "right" and "normal", and I don't think that's asking too much. I bleed red the same as anybody else, I'm not mentally deficient nor am I stating that I deserve special rights. Just the same as anybody else, because I am the same as everybody else.

Originally posted by libertytoall
I don't have any problem with someone being gay, you just can't have the term marriage. You are not allowed to have a religious sacred union when what you're doing is against creation. How is that so complicated?

edit on 23-3-2011 by libertytoall because: (no reason given)

Your god isn't real. How is that so complicated?

How do you like it when someone tells you something like that so black and white?

The above statement is not necessarily my actual opinion but I thought you should see first hand how ridiculous your own remarks are.

Gay people don't want a "religious sacred union' they just want a lawfully recognised union, if they happen to be so inclined.

It's been said before but again - you chose to be religious. Gay people didn't choose to be gay and if one happens to 'reform' then they are bisexual.

reply to post by Garfee


Ah but the difference is I'm not telling you you have to change the meaning of being gay while you are telling everyone who is religious to change the meaning of marriage.


As far as not "choosing" to be gay. I have a friend who used to be gay and got married and is now heterosexual. Is that genetic? I have another friend who was heterosexual for 35 years and then went for guys. Is that genetic? Were they born that way?

I wholeheartedly dissagree with you

reply to post by Helious


Be bigoted & intellectually regressive all you like, just hush up about it!

IRM :shk:

Originally posted by Helious
Your not Jews, you have haven't struggled for 5 thousand years under endless oppression. You like sex with the same member of your own sex and are narcissistic enough to think that everyone needs to know and acknowledge it when all we want is for you to just keep it in your pants and behind closed doors like everyone else has been expected too do since a civilized society was formed.

Exactly!
Narcissistic, exhibitionistic, provocative attention seekers!

Here are some pics from the silly Gay Pride parade:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/07f2e8e9f6bc.jpg[/atsimg]
Guys, err, gays, I don't need to know how you look in your ridiculous preferred dresses, in fact I DON'T WANT TO KNOW!

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/9839b7801d18.jpg[/atsimg]
Bad taste at its best

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/ba478673b08a.jpg[/atsimg]
I'd call this one blasphemy even.

Ko3

reply to post by libertytoall


Ah, so the difference is semantics, not any kind of principle.

reply to post by SmedleyBurlap


No it's exactly principle not semantics. Gays want to force something on religious people while the religious people are not telling people they can't be gay. Is that complex to understand?

reply to post by Helious


So, are you saying heterosexual's do not go out of their way

to share with the world what you desire sexually behind closed doors which should be something only communicated with those you choose to do it with

?

I see heterosexual's, doing this every day. I see them kissing, holding hands, snuggling, even OMG DANCING together in public, and getting married, even on TV, so very much going out of their way to share with the world their sexual desires.

Why is it ok for heterosexuals to do this, but if a homosexual does the same thing, they are somehow trying to get attention and shoving it in your face?

This thread, deprives them of their rights. By telling them to "keep it behind closed doors" while being accepting of heterosexuals being openly heterosexual every day, you are depriving a human being of the rights they should have.

Repressed heterosexuals are the problem, not the homosexual community.

Harm None
Peace

Originally posted by libertytoall
reply to post by Garfee

 

Ah but the difference is I'm not telling you you have to change the meaning of being gay while you are telling everyone who is religious to change the meaning of marriage.


As far as not "choosing" to be gay. I have a friend who used to be gay and got married and is now heterosexual. Is that genetic? I have another friend who was heterosexual for 35 years and then went for guys. Is that genetic? Were they born that way?

I wholeheartedly dissagree with you

edit on 23-3-2011 by libertytoall because: (no reason given)

My understanding is that a bisexual person can go either way. While it is physically possible for a homosexual man or woman to have sex with the opposite sex, they are still inately homosexual.

A marriage is not religious. It is legal and social recognition of a union. You can have a religious ceremony if you like.

reply to post by libertytoall


What's so big about the term "marriage"? Why does it matter? Any thinking person can look at a union between two men or two women and realize that it's about love and not procreation. That's a given. Why would you care that two people want to make a more final commitment to one another? How does that affect your pursuit of happiness exactly?

reply to post by sidthekid26


I don't have any problem with it as long as you don't try subvert the meaning or the WORD marriage. Call it a civil union, call it love bond commitment, call it whatever you like, just don't redefine the word marriage because it has deep meaning for others. You show through your own statements the meaning of the word means nothing to you. Well it means a great deal to a practicing religious person.

reply to post by sidthekid26


The problem with religious people and the word marriage. It is a religious term specifically meaning the union between a man and a woman. Religious people take their religions seriously, and they see people trying to turn marriage into something other than what it is.

If gay people started calling their gay pride parades bar mitsvahs(probably butchered spelling), you would have jewish people pissed off too. Make sense?

Originally posted by libertytoallGays want to force something on religious people while the religious people are not telling people they can't be gay.

Um no. Homosexuals just want self-determination and respect for their unalienable rights, like everyone else. If there is any undo influence, it is most assuredly Religion and it's vise grip on the State. Because if you go strictly by the Constitution, it's pretty cut and dry.

I agree with a previous poster who, to paraphrase, says both sides perpetuate the debate by reducing it all to stereotypes. That's why people haul out flame-bait pics like those previously posted. They are really no different in my mind from racist characterizations of African-Americans, as if all people of a group were the same. It's shameful.

reply to post by Helious


As a straight man with a couple of gay family members, I'm pretty outspoken in defending them and their rights. With that being said, I absolutly agree with everything the OP has said. It really is no one's business, I don't bring it up unless someone is bashing my family, so S&F for you OP. You have taken a view of this and presented it exactly as it should be. Well done.


ETA: Just FYI, I haven't read any of the responses because I'm just assuming I'll get drug into an argument with some closed minded bigot. Just not going to bother.

Originally posted by kosmicjack

Originally posted by libertytoallThey are really no different in my mind from racist characterizations of African-Americans, as if all people of a type were the same. It's shameful.

You mean like when someone previously said all gays didn't choose to be that way?

edit on 23-3-2011 by libertytoall because: (no reason given)

reply to post by kosmicjack


Haha good point. To the pro gay people, anytime anyone disagrees with anything gay, they must be right wing card carrying westboro church members. To the other side anyone that says anything the slightest bit pro gay must be a big flaming homo. It is kind of comical sometimes.

reply to post by Helious


NO NO NO NO NO!
I'm assuming that you're white, since the picture of God in your avatar is. You don't have to where a full body cloth sack to hide from black people the fact that you're white. Christians don't have to hide their crosses whenever Muslims come around. And gays don't have to downplay or hide their sexual orientation. If you don't like gays IT"S YOUR PROBLEM. NOT THEIRS. I'm straight, white, upper-middle class background, blah blah blah. I don't have much to complain about in this nation, but I can't imagine if somebody told me not to tell anyone that I visit ATS cos conspiracy theories are "weird" and make some people uncomfortable.
It's not different cos it's "a choice" it's not different cos of religious values, it's not different cos of the sanctity of marriage, IT"S NOT DIFFERENT. If blacks can eat at the same lunch counter as whites, if women can vote and own property, then gays can marry and live in peace. This is exactly what's wrong with America; instead of embracing our differences and helping each other out we say "well, I disagree with you, so you can go soak your head." We are all divided into these little groups and taught to HATE each other. If you don't LOVE the gays, you HATE them. You can't say that you disagree with someone as a person, you want to pass laws against them, and keep them quiet about their views and their lifestyles and then say "but I don't have a PROBLEM with gay people. They should be free to live their lives, just with stipulations cos they're gay."

Originally posted by kid_of_3NKi

Here are some pics from the silly Gay Pride parade:

And let it be recorded that you knew exactly where to find these pictures on a whim. I can only imagine that you've had a lot of 'practice' looking at these images!

Originally posted by kid_of_3NKi
Guys, err, gays, I don't need to know how you look in your ridiculous preferred dresses, in fact I DON'T WANT TO KNOW!

Yet here you are looking at them (and posting them) just one more time! Couldn't help yourself ehhh!

IRM

reply to post by libertytoall


Marriage is not just a religious term. It is primarily a legal and social term. It existed all around the world in different societes, and is practiced also by atheists. Even in anti-theistic communist regimes, people got married. Christians do not have any more right to decide what marriage means and how it should be practiced than anyone else.

reply to post by Helious


I would tend to agree with this statement except straight people are always flaunting it in public. Holding hands on the elevator, making out in McDonalds, groping and feeling each other up in a car or the back of a bus and nobody writes posts about that. It's no big deal. But if you see two women kiss, all hell breaks loose. Pretty hypocritical of you, if you ask me.

By the way, off topic here: You have the worst spelling! Really bad.