What I don’t get is, everyone I meet seems accepting of others, and then we get around voting time, and people continue to vote against gay marriage.

I don’t think it’d always hatred. It’s a lot of people’s interpretation of the Bible. It makes them scared – not of the LGTB community itself, but of what may happen to them, to their families, etc, just for “allowing” people to be gay. I don’t believe in that interpretation, or that God is so cruel. We need to teach the fear away.

Of course, sometimes this turns into hatred. I’ve seen people, right down the street from where I live, holding up very hateful signs, saying “All Gays Will Go To Hell” (to mention one of the nicer ones), and I don’t think this is any way to behave. It’s really very sad and shameful.

I really don’t care for the word “tolerance.” We need to learn to love one another – not just tolerate each other. I believe that this will be a non-issue some day, and that people will look back and say, “Why was this such a big deal?”

Unfortunately, we have far to go.

STUPIDITY!!!

No PC for me. I’ll call it as I see it.

that has not been mentioned as to the REAL reason. Insurance. That’s a whole new addition to spousal benefits.

The don’t ask don’t tell has been repealed. However, I’m sure gay marriage will be a major battle for recognition. If the military has to recognize gay marriage, then they have to pay family allotments, include gay spouses in medical coverage, allow gay families to live in base housing or provide BAQ or the supplemental money paid to families if they live off base.

I’m sure this has more to do with the issue than what the propaganda machines call an attack on family values.

I’ve been saddened and angered when I’ve heard friends whine to me that they don’t understand why gays would feel the need to fight for the word “marriage” when they could have everything else, just through a “civil union”. “Why can’t they just leave it alone?” they moan.

It makes me sick. These are people I otherwise really like, and think of as good folks. I don’t think they want gay folks to be hurt, and I don’t think they would try to be personally mean or rude to a gay acquaintance. But they are so arrogantly stupid in this complaint. It is the blindness of privilege. Because marriage to the one THEY love isn’t being denied to THEM, they don’t see how this issue is important to the world.

Some part of them must just not accept that gays are every bit as real and human as straights are. Like they’re just straights playing a bizarre game.

Gay marriage was just voted against in France, which doesn’t surprise me (people here are pretty conservative).

I don’t even get the pseudo debates “is it natural ? is it normal ?”. What do you care, two men/women like each other, where do you fit in, how is it any of your business ? I think it’s just ignorance and people being control freaks.

I’m not fond of the “were they born that way” debate either because whatever the answer is, it will be used negatively : you have the people who seem to think gay is like a chromosome or something, which implies they’re abnormal people, and you have the reverse extreme (“it’s a choice !”), which I find just as offensive because it implies there’s a right choice and a wrong choice, and that it’s okay for gays to be discrimined against cause it was their choice in the first place (you actually hear people say such things).

Personally I think people aren’t born straight or gay or bi for that matter, they’re born sexual, that’s it, the only question should be whether a type of sexuality hurts someone, which is clearly the case when a person is not old enough physically or psychologically or is simply not consentant. I believe a consensual, respectful, fun, loving relationship between two men/women is a million times healthier than an abusive heterosexual relationship. I’m not into it personally but neither do I like spinach, yet I don’t tell people who eat spinach to go to hell because what they eat doesn’t make me sh… you get the picture :).

Though I suppose many people who are over homosexuality and don’t mind it per se are afraid of the marriage thing because they think the next step will be adoption, and they’re not comfortable with gay couples raising children because they believe in the mother + father archetype… So I guess in some people’s case it’s outright homophobia, for others it’s religion, and for others it’s more about the children having a “normal” life (can be a mix of the 3 things too !). But adoption is a whole other debate and a couple who live together should indeed have the same rights as any other in terms of taxes, housing, etc IMO. Plus no one should be denied a boring civil service :). And to save the cool word “marriage” for heteros only is kind of immature, what, do we get exclusivity on the suits too :O ?!!

”...Personally I think people aren’t born straight or gay or bi for that matter, they’re born sexual, that’s it, the only question should be whether a type of sexuality hurts someone, which is clearly the case when a person is not old enough physically or psychologically or is simply not consent-ant.

”...I believe a consensual, respectful, fun, loving relationship between two men/women is a million times healthier than an abusive heterosexual relationship..”.

How true…Thank you jin4 for this comment. That says it all for me also, being straight myself, not there’s anything wrong with that…it’s my choice to love the opposite sex, not negative just my choice and it should be everyone’s choice to make.

If a boy grows up and tends to be more feminine than masculine (or like to associate with the things girls do than boys do is probably a better description) he is shunned by society and yet if a girl grows up and tends to like more masculine things than feminine, she is accepted that it’s okay she will grow out of it. However, for the boy, he may be sport form bullying and fears, “oh my he might grow up gay!? Typical stereotypical fears, will they ever stop? Will this argument ever stop? certainty hope it will. That’s all I have to say on this, thank you all for your comments…and responses….

Love,

George :)

but I’m gonna go with Foole and say ‘stupidity’.

People are afraid of things they do not understand.

And there are a lot of cowardly people in the world. People who do not like their notions of religion and marriage and love disrupted with things they do not understand.

The less we teach our children, the less they’ll understand as they grow up. We can’t forget that.

I guess a lot of people have some big issues to work out.

Some people hate people of different races, event though they haven’t really personally had any problems with these people.

Some people still hate people of different races marrying. A friend of mine married a hispanic woman, and apparently there were death threats. Can you believe that?

Some people hate other religions, or other countries, people who have dogs, or even people who have just certain kinds of dogs (REALLY, all people who own chihuahuas should be destroyed?)

Hate just seems to come from hateful people, and sometimes what they hate just seems random. They latch onto something, and just hate like mad. They can’t be convinced to change their minds.

Like, why would anyone hate Jewish people for the death of Christ over 2000 years ago? Like they’re responsible!!!

I don’t know if the people who say they hate gays and lesbians really do, they just have to hate something, and that topic seems well supported by other haters, so they form a community of hateful people who can all hate together. They seem to add credibility to each other’s hatred by sticking together, then they don’t seem quite so crazy and irrational.

I think that’s how a lot of group hatred works. you bond over it, and form a group, and then that group keeps reinforcing its values. Then it feels really good to be part of a group like that, so they have to keep hating to stay with their group.

How are you going to disrupt something like that?