Im responding to 13 pages so be prepared for a long, long post. Im going to cover it all. This is not directed to everybody here, but Im sure some of you will know Im responding to your posts.
I believe that everybody has a right to their opinions, regardless of how bigoted those opinions may be. The point that you cross a line is when you want to use that bigotry to take discriminating action against a group of people. I wont stand by and let you. You can hate us, declare of morally bankrupt, and wish with everything in you that homosexuals didnt exist. But the point in which you support legislation to eliminate human rights is the point in which I will fight you every step of the way. Your opinion only counts as long as you dont force your opinion on me. I want the right to marry my partner. My having that right doesnt affect you. Your having a negative opinion doesnt affect me. Your taking action against my right does affect me. Worry about your own life and what happens in your marriage. You need to keep your religion and your politics out of my life and out of my bedroom.
Im about sick to death of people who use the slippery slope argument to justify their bigoted beliefs. Youre afraid that if homosexuals can marry then other people will want the right to marry their dogs, their children, their cousins, or their automobiles. First of all, I think I can promise you here and now that no sane person will ever ask to marry their car. Obsessions with inanimate objects are fetishes, which are mental illnesses. Homosexuality is NOT a mental illness. If you seriously think it is possible that the law will allow such marriages then medication is in order as is treatment for paranoid personality disorder. Second of all, I also think I can promise you that the law will never allow for a marriage that involves a victim. Since children and animals cant consent to sex, I seriously think you can stop worrying about such things. Third of all, the law isnt likely to allow two people to marry if their gene pools are so similar that the odds of producing sick children are too high. That would probably discount father/daughter and perhaps even sibling marriages. Beyond that, I dont give a **** who marries whom, and neither should the law. If first cousins fall in love and want to marry, then why should we tell them no? If some dude wants three wives, and those wives are old enough to know what they are doing, then who are we to judge?
Another thing, there is NO evidence whatsoever that the slippery slope fears have manifested in other countries that allow gay marriage. Ive sure not seen evidence of this. I have friends in all the Scandinavian countries and I e-mailed all of them this question earlier today and they have all responded like it was a big joke! Of course people dont want to marry cars or children or siblings! What kind of idiot would suggest such a thing? Dont worry, I didnt give them names!
Oh, and to whoever suggested marriage is only about the warm fuzzies, give me a frickin break! Is that really all you think it is about? Heres a real-life situation for you if you think its just about the warm fuzzies. I own a house. Its only in my name, not my partners. Together, the two of us could buy a much nicer home. My house is nice, its just that its way out in the country because that is where property was cheap enough so that I could have the house I wanted. On my income alone, I could never get a nice house in town. Our combined incomes could purchase our dream house easily. One problem. I would NEVER buy a house with her. Why? Because she has an adult daughter who would think nothing of taking the house from me in the event her mother passed on. And since my partner is 17 years older than I am, theres a pretty good chance that I could find myself paying lawyers everything I have to save my home and still lose it! Why? Because that warm fuzzy feeling isnt going to be enough to keep her daughter from trying to steal my house! Now if we were married, it would be all but impossible for her daughter to contest a will successfully. Yes, it COULD happen, but it would be very unlikely. Without marriage, it would be inevitable. And yes, I do know of cases where this has happened, even when wills were made. If two people arent married, the biological children have more power than the will
at least that is my experience of watching the partners of two deceased friends trying to sort out such messes.
Last month I had to have a triple hernia repair. Because I was alert going into the surgery, I was able to request my partners presence. But had it been emergency surgery, technically speaking, the nurses would have had to refuse my partner. Real warm and fuzzy, isnt it?
Lets move on to the those who think homosexuality is a choice. I was born to heterosexual parents in a right-wing conservative midwest town. I didnt even know what a homosexual was when I started feeling attracted to the female body. I can remember being five to six years old and sneaking the Sears catalog into my room so I could look at the pretty woman wearing the scanty bras! Tell me that a six year old made the choice to like women. Oh, and my oldest brother eventually came out too. Do you honestly think we both made that choice? Or could it be possible that my parents carried a recessive gene and passed it on to both my brother and me?
One more thing, I was a biology/psychology major in college. I once took a class called behavioral genetics. The professor was a conservative right-wing jerk who was despised by everybody for being such a conservative presence in a liberal college. But Ill tell you one thing
this conservative professor insisted that homosexuality was genetically passed from parent to child. Even he believed it to be genetic, despite his conservative ways. Many, if not most biologists and behaviorists believe there is a strong genetic component to everything we do. Theres evidence that supports this with many behaviors, but not all
only because the genes have yet to be isolated. Its just a matter of time.
There are fascinating twin studies that support the homosexuality is genetic argument. There are studies of twins separated at birth that show a tendency for both end up gay or both end up straight. In monozygotic twins, there is an even higher likelihood that both will be homosexual, even when they were raised in different households thousands of miles apart! How can you seriously say its a choice?!!!? And I know from personal experience how common it is for parents to have more than one gay child. I know many, many lesbians and gay men who have gay siblings. Very, very common. Its also very common for gay kids to have gay aunts or uncles. There is a very clear genetic connection, like it or not.
Another thing. Ive heard it hypothesized many times that homosexuals do play an important role in the natural world, the same role as infertile men and women: population control. If even five percent of the population didnt procreate because of homosexuality, that is one huge amount of people not being born. Unfortunately, mother nature didnt assume that BIGOTS would drive so many gay people into playing straight and having babies anyway. Imagine, though, if worldwide people would stop letting religion rule them and just let homosexuals be homosexuals. We would indeed help keep populations lower. That isnt a bad thing when you look at the current growth rate on our planet. Like infertile men and woman, homosexuals should have every right to marry and find happiness, even if they dont produce any children.
As far as the Anne Heche comment
that woman is bisexual (as well as bipolar). Bisexuals like both genders. That means they might date a woman one time and a man the next. A homosexual cant do that! You want me to marry a man? Be prepared to watch me vomit at the alter when he tries to kiss me. Yes, Im as grossed out at the thought of being with the opposite gender as you are of being with the same gender.
Let me ask those of you who think its a choice one question. Could you EVER make the choice to be with somebody of your own sex? Or would you feel sick at the idea? If you get ill at the thought of forcing an attraction that is unnatural to you, then why on earth do you think gay people can force themselves to be attracted to the same gender? And why, why, why would they want to???? Why would any little girl who likes boys wake up one day and say, gee, its a nice Tuesday afternoon
I think Im going to force myself to like girls today
just for the hell of it! Does that really make any sense?
And no, Ive never been abused by any man and I had a wonderful relationship with my father and my brothers. There is nothing to make me not like men. Nothing except GENETICS. If fact, some of my closest friends are guys. I like guys fine as friends, but Id rather die than be intimate with one! Yuck!
That is all.
) If I remember correctly the Constitution recognizes certain G-d Given, inalienable rights in the preamble, and then specifies 10 very important and specific rights (not all inclusive) in the bill of rights.
'Bush Supreme Challenge'
