Theodore said:
Oh please, dont give me this crap. What do you care what I think about your relationship? You can go and have any relationship you please, I never said you couldnt. Just because the state doesnt officially recognize your relationship doesnt mean anybody is preventing you from having that relationship.
I have a right to be treated equally under the law, and you are wrong to participate in any enactment of law that denies me that right.
Dont be such a pathetic victim.
How many schoolyard thugs have said the same thing?
I find the idea of two men having sex with each other repellant and repugnant.
If you have ever received oral stimulation from your wife, then I have never been involved in a sexual act that she has not been guilty of. Do you find your wife repugnant? I have similar feelings about the notion of having intercourse with a woman to your feelings about having intercourse with a man. The notion leaves me feeling...dirty. However, nobody has asked you to have sex with a man. Nobody has even asked you to witness two men having intercourse. What, then, is the problem? Is the fact that two men, somewhere, are having sexual intercourse with one another offensive to you? This is called homophobia. This is the appropriate term to discribe a person who finds the notion of homosex frightening, offensive, or distubing and not an effort to demonize you, as you seem fond of accusing me of. If you wish to cure yourself of your homophobia, I suggest that you take a few extra moments out of every day to seriously contemplate the possibility that you yourself may be homosexual until you no longer experience any worse emotion than amusement in doing so. This is intended to reassure you that you are absolutely incapable of finding yourself seriously attracted to the same sex, and this knowledge may help you to reduce your feelings of uneasiness over the idea of two men being together. No matter how confident you think you are in your sexual orientation, knowing for certain that your sexual preference really is inherent really does help a great deal.
I do not find love between any two people objectionable. However, I see a clear distinction between sex and love.
How about the idea of two men walking shoulder to shoulder, hugging, or kissing in the easy and natural way that you often see between heterosexual couples?
I bear no malice toward you or anyone else.
Referring to me as a "pathetic victim" had no malice in it, then?
I feel its my duty as a father and a citizen to help maintain a moral conscience within society.
As a citizen, I am obligated to uphold and defend the ideas of freedom and equality, and I also uphold Madison's idea that minorities should have a way to protect themselves from the majority, particularly in defense of themselves. In interest of this, I ask you to set aside your absolutist doctrine long enough to attempt to have compassion for the lot of other people.
Part of that morality is to ensure the physical security of all people.
Do you really feel that homosexuality makes you or anyone else insecure, or does it merely make you and a few others
feel insecure with yourselves? It's a serious question.
Another part of that morality is to make sure we dont descend towards Sodom and Gomorra.
Have you ever even opened the Bible? Apparently, you have never taken the time and energy to read it comprehensively. That would have no effect on my status as a person, but you, on the other hand, should spend more time attempting to educate yourself about your own religion. The reasons for Sodom's destruction are expressed clearly and unmistakably in Ezekiel, and none of them refer to homosexuality to my memory.
I have seen enough of the gay bathhouse scene to realize that its not far off.
You're in California. I wouldn't venture there without the protection of a rubber suit and a flamethrower. In all seriousness, your thinking here is really quite backwards. Any homosexuals who chose to get married would most likely not follow the beliefs or philosophies of those on the gay bathhouse scene, and I can't help but join you in finding this irresponsible attitude toward sexuality quite repellent. Much of it is due to the moral abandoment that homosexual children are subject to when their parents realize that their child is homosexual. If your child does turn out to be homosexual, the worst possible response is to disown him or to declare yourself a failure as a parent. If you can't get your child to change his or her sexual orientation, then you should do the same things that you would do for a heterosexual child, including inviting zir to develop a lasting relationship with someone and inviting zir partners to become members of your family. Many parents become so uncomfortable with the idea of their child having a sexual orientation that they find, at best, unsettling that they forget about their many responsibilities as parents, including defending their children from lovers who are only out to take advantage of them and asking their children to save themselves for someone whom they might be willing to spend the rest of their lives with.
Try to understand, though, that many homosexual couples are mature and responsible people, and many are raising children together who seem to be just as happy and stable as those raised by heterosexual parents. Something has got to be done about the unfortunate attitude that many homosexuals take toward sex, but barring them from marriage is uncontrovertibly the worst possible thing to do about it.
