What They Say

      There are typically seven arguments I hear when talking to someone who opposes me because I am gay. These arguments are the same tried and worn-out arguments that I have heard repeatedly. Most of the people spewing these points do not even know why they are saying. They are simply repeating what they heard, without thinking.They are destroying the moral fabric of our country. They are a feature of a decadent society. They want special rights. They need to recruit in order to increase their numbers. They want to influence children and other people to become gay. They are anti-Christian. God hates fags. The Family is the Fundamental building block to society. They are against family, against family values. They are responsible for AIDS. None of them really has a faithful relationship. What they do is disgusting.

      One of the leading sources for the arguments against the gay citizen are the religious leaders of America. In each section, I will list a few quotes from various religious leaders and the link to were I found them. I will also try to explain why I feel this argument is flawed, failing to do anything except expand the hatred against a group of Americans.

They are destroying the moral fabric of our country. They are a feature of a decadent society.

      “If the world accepts homosexuality as its norm and if it moves the entire world in that regard, the whole world is then going to be sitting like Sodom and Gomorrah before a Holy God. And when the wrath of God comes on this earth, we will all be guilty and we will all suffer for it.” – Pat Robertson 700 Club, 9-6-95 (http://www.pfaw/org/issues/rights/rtvw.antigay.shtml)

      "...the acceptance of homosexuality is the last step in the decline of Gentile civilization." --Pat Robertson, of the Christian Broadcasting Network, warned that hurricanes could hit Orlando, Fla., because of gay events there. Time magazine, Oct 26, 1998

      "Someone must not be afraid to say, 'moral perversion is wrong.' If we do not act now, homosexuals will 'own' America!...If you and I do not speak up now, this homosexual steamroller will literally crush all decent men, women, and children who get in its way...and our nation will pay a terrible price!" Jerry Fawell- "Hostile Climate," 1997, p.15.

      "Homosexuality is the result of the moral fall of the human race." - http://www.afa.net, Homosexuality in America: Exposing the Myths.

      One of the problems with this argument is that it uses a stereotype of a gay person. Just as there is no stereotypical heterosexual, there is no stereotypical gay person. There are ethical, moral, social-conscious gay people just as there are ethical, moral, social-conscious heterosexual. Both sides of the issue also have what can only be considered ethically and morally lacking individuals.

      To argue that the decline of a society is directly related to the raise in the number of gay citizens is also foolish and easily disproved. For this to be true there would have to be a noticeable increase in the number of gay citizens. At best, those that oppose the gay population have stated that there is never more then 1-3% or the population at any given time. So if the population of gay citizens is not growing then how cans the gay population be a primary cause in the perceived increase of a societies decline?

      This argument does not use a balanced view of reality. It relies on the use of stereotypes to create fear of differences. The typical gay stereotype is a morally weak, sexually addictive individual who has little self-control, while the heterosexual is viewed as a hallmark of morality.

They want special rights.

      "Sometimes when people talk about this sin they've been accused of being racist. I'm offended that homosexuals will say that homosexuals deserve rights. Any man in America deserves rights, but homosexuals are trying to compare their plight with the plight of black men or black people. In the process of history, homosexuals have never been castrated; millions of them never died. Homosexuality is a decision. It's not a race."- Remarks by Reggie White to the Wisconsin Assembly, March 25, 1998.

      "The demand is that homosexuality be endorsed and promoted with the full power of the law. This would require us to abandon the standard of nature, the one standard that can teach us the difference between freedom and slavery, between right and wrong. Once we abandon the standard of nature, what is to forbid us from resorting to any violation of nature that we may please? Why should we not return to slavery, if we find it convenient? Or the practices of incest or adultery or cannibalism?" - http://www.claremont.org/pubs/miah.htm

      "Imagine a call for ‘sodomites’ rights.’ In order for sodomites to get around this distasteful, but accurate image, they have created the terminology ‘gay rights’. "- Paul Volle, Chairman, Christian Coalition of Maine, "The Gay Agenda," October 1998

      "Practicing homosexuals individually may come up against anti-gay societal sentiment in the form of denied jobs or housing. This is OK." - "The Gay Agenda", published by Paul Volle, Chairman, Christian Coalition of Maine, October 1998

      This argument fails when looking at three statements already in writing for civil rights:

      The argument that I want special rights is foolish. I do not want special rights. I want the same rights as every American no more no less. With the three above articles all ready in writing every civil right should be mine. However, laws are created to undermine my rights based on a majority view of what constitutes normality, for example marriage. If the argument is a religious stance then the First amendments states that I have a right not to have a religious belief restrict my rights. If the argument is Legislative, then the 14th amendment states that no State shall make or enforce any law that abridges a citizen’s right to life or liberty. This also deals with my right to life, liberty and happiness. Notice it says Their Creator not the Creator allowing for individual belief and the individual pursuit of life liberty and happiness. In other words as long as I do not violate Constitutional Laws I should have the same rights as every other American. Sadly, I do not.

They need to recruit in order to increase their numbers. They want to influence children and other people to become gay.

      "Homosexuality is not a private concern. Its participants are public and vocal, desiring to propagate their sexual behavior among the next generation." "The Gay Agenda", published by Paul Volle, Chairman, Christian Coalition of Maine, October 1998

      " 'I would suggest to you,' she said, 'that while the homosexual population may right now be one to two percent, hold your breath, people, because the recruitment is loud; it is clear; it is everywhere. You'll be seeing, I would say, twenty percent or more, probably thirty percent, or even more than that, of the young population will be moving into homosexual activity.' " - Judith Reisman - http://www.ifas.org/fw/9408/gleneyrie.html

      “It’s one thing to say, `We have rights to jobs...we have rights to be left alone in out little corner of the world to do our thing.’ It’s an entirely different thing to say, well, `We’re not only going to go into the schools and we’re going to take your children and your grandchildren and turn them into homosexuals.’ Now that’s wrong.” - 700 Club, 9-17-92 (source: People for the American Way Foundation)

      If one looks at this argument seriously, you quickly see the foolishness of it on many levels. First, with a few token cases, where are the gay role models? Where are the ads on TV selling the “Gay lifestyle”? Where are the magazine ads showing anything about the so-called gay community? The heterosexual community in fact does the recruitment. We are taught at a very young age that boys act this way and girls act that way…anything else is weird and not acceptable. We see that if a boy drinks this beer he will get a pretty girl. What if the young boy is gay? Or struggling to understand who is?

      Second, I ask anyone who is non-gay if they wish to become gay the direct and rapid answer is normally NO, Hell NO! Now if we can recruit unsuspecting non-gay members of society then that means that anyone can become gay at anytime they wish. This also means that everyone had to sit down and think about what orientation he or she wanted to be at some point in their life. None of us did. So recruitment into the “gay lifestyle” is not possible, while recruitment into the “straight lifestyle”: occurs all the time. How many gay men and ladies marry out of fear or someone finding that they are gay. They live their life in fear and anguish. Yet that is fine -- better to be in anguish and unhappy then gay. Better to lie, then be gay -- now what was that commandment--Thou shall not lie?

      "Homosexuals are included in a list of sinners, who, if unrepentant, will not inherit the kingdom of God." - Family Research Council press release about Matt Shepard's funeral, on the day of the funeral, October 16, 1998, http://www.frc.org/press/101698.html.

      "[Homosexuality] is the opposite of love for God. It is a rebellion against God and God's natural order, and embodies a deep-seated hatred against true religion." - THE ASSAULT ON CHRISTIANS BY THE MILITANT HOMOSEXUAL MOVEMENT, by Steven A. Schwalm, Family Research Council, http://www.frc.org/podium/pd98j2hs.html

      Gay people have "Contempt for Orthodox Christianity" - Jun 15, 98, Americans for Truth About Homosexuality press release, http://www.americansfortruth.com/Julaug~1.htm

      "the real motivation behind such hate crime laws is to silence Christians. Gays will now feel free to blame any crime against a homosexual on Christians" - AFA ACTION ALERT via email, 10/16/98

      "homosexuals seek to undercut the social authority of churches" - http://www.afa.net, Homosexuality in America: Exposing the Myths.

      This argument holds that the only religion that is correct is the Christian faith. Or at best, a Judeo-Christian concept of what is God. This argument also holds the innate correctness of the Bible. The problem with this argument is that it generally takes a literal translation for parts of the bible it wants. It is pick and chose theology. This argument uses a stereotype that states all gays are non-Christian, again attempting to show us as unethical and immoral creatures. This is not true. There are millions of Christians who are gay. I would propose that the majority of gays in this country are Christians, but I would not wish to make a statement I can not support.

      The issue of homosexuality is just a stepping stone in the religious rights attack on civil liberties as a whole. Most Religious Right leaders clearly show it is their belief that it is government's job to impose morality on the citizens of the country. Just as long as the morality that is imposed is Christian and falls inline with their beliefs of what is Christian.

The Family is the Fundamental building block to society. They are against family, against family values.

      Homosexuality is "a sexual behavior that is killing our young people and destroying families". - AFA ACTION ALERT via email, 4/25/97

      "homosexual behavior hurts people, families, and communities."- Robert Knight, March 1997 speech, http://www.frc.org/podium/pd97clhs.html

      When asked about gay Americans who support monogamy, child-rearing and family values, FRC's Yvette Cantu responded: "I want to know who’s saying this, besides HRC [the Human Rights Campaign, the largest homosexual lobby group] … Is it the men in the gay bars and bathhouses taking a look at their lives and saying, 'We need to settle down, pull together a family and live normally?' No, the only people who are saying this are the activists who are trying to gain special rights for homosexuals. They’re saying, 'Look, if we play it right we can get the special rights we want. Stop making us look bad.' But the people who are 'making homosexuals look bad' are pretty much the entire male homosexual subculture."- AFTAH Web site interview with FRC's Yvette Cantu, http://www.americansfortruth.org/ycc_interview.htm

      "Legally destroying the exclusive territory of marriage to achieve a political end will not provide the real benefits of marriage to homosexuals, but it may be the blow that the shattered American family does not survive." - Kristi Hamrick http://www.frc.org/net/st96d2.html

      Most gay people I know support the right to marry anyone you wish as long as the person is of legal age for the state that that person resides in. Strangely the argument that a gay person getting married would destroy the marriage of a heterosexual couple. I never knew we had this much power. This argument uses one of the greatest instruments in hate. Creating the image of those, you wish to discriminate against as having superhuman power. If we are less then 1% of the population, and if we live such promiscuous lives, how is it that the few handfuls of gay people that wish to marry could destroy every other non-gay marriage? We are given superhuman abilities to stir fear and hatred. We cannot harm a non-gay marriage. If it fails we did not cause it to fail the couple did it on their own. The other part that we are against the Family is just an extension of the erroneous stereotypical image of the unethical, immoral gay person living a promiscuous life.

      Although the homosexuals represent 2-4% of the U.S. population they carry over 44% of the nations syphilis, 51% of gonorrhea of the throat, 53% of intestinal infections and 80% of the AIDS disease. Diseased homosexual food handlers in public restaurants in San Francisco and Minneapolis have been responsible for major outbreaks of amebiasis and hepatitis A infections. The homosexuals have a rate of infectious hepatitis B, 20 to 50 times greater than heterosexual males." - Paul Volle, Chairman, Christian Coalition of Maine, "The Gay Agenda," October 1998

      "I think that actually AIDS is a guardian. That is I think it was sent, if you would, about forty years ago, to destroy Western civilization unless we change our sexual ways. So it's really a Godsend." - Cameron quoted by Mark E. Pietrzyk, News-Telegraph, March 10, 1995.

      "America is not big enough to shake her fist in the face of a holy God and get away with it, and as I read this I want to explain something. I'm going to read this and then I want to explain something. As America has permitted homosexuality to establish itself as an alternate lifestyle, it is also reeling from the frightening spread of sexually transmitted disease. Sin begets its own consequence, both on individuals and nations."- Remarks by Reggie White to the Wisconsin Assembly, March 25, 1998.

      Now not only am I a superhuman with powers to covert a non-gay person into becoming gay, I am also a flea infested, disease ridden creature, who is still without ethical or moral thought. Again, the major theme here is fear. Ignorance is bliss. AIDS was a well-established epidemic in the non-gay population in parts of the word long before it reached America. The spread of HIV and AIDS is now more prevalent among non-gay sexual partners then between gay partners. The fastest growing population, which is infected with HIV or AIDS, is the “straight” female. It must also be remember that when the disease was first being discovered in America there was no idea how it was transmitted, or were there any ideas on how to prevent it. Other issues come into play that people would rather have us forget. Top of the list is that the Reagan 80’s and the Disco 70’s both were one big party. Gay, non-gay it did not matter, what mattered was having fun, making money and showing off how rich you were. Sexual promiscuity was evident on every level of society, gay or heterosexual.

      To categorize only the gay male, as the party beast of the 70’s or 80’s is again an unbalanced argument, lacking in reality. To argue that the Gay man is responsible or that it is a curse form God for being gay is completely ignorant on any facts. However, like most arguments against the gay population, ignorance of the facts only helps their side.

      "gays average somewhere between 106 and 1105 different partners/year"-Paul Cameron quoted at http://www.biblebelievers.com/Cameron2.html

      "homosexual couples have higher rates of domestic violence than do heterosexual couples, especially among lesbians"- Paul Cameron quoted at http://www.biblebelievers.com/Cameron1.html

      "Homosexual unions are not built around lifetime commitments"-Paul Cameron quoted at http://www.biblebelievers.com/Cameron1.html

      "Nicolosi describes gay partnerships as bedeviled by cheating, teasing, fights, jealousy, rage, suspicion, envy, restlessness, and disappointment. Nicolosi writes, ‘Homosexual relationships are so characteristically volatile because the homosexual hates what he loves.’ " - Joseph Nicolosi, head of NARTH and one of the religious right's top two ex-gay psychiatrists in the country, from NARTH's Web site, http://www.narth.com/docs/1996papers/berman.html

      This argument allows those that oppose me can attack me from both sides at once. They hate me for being promiscuous, and they hate me for wanting to live a life that is not promiscuous. They attack gay relationships because if gay relationships are shown to be equally as stable as a heterosexual relationship then the argument to restrict benefits to only heterosexual couples still holds power to them. Why give partner benefits to a people who cannot stay in lasting relationships? The real question here is why do you think you have the rights to restrict others of their constitutional rights?

      “...What kind of craziness is it in our society which will put a cloak of secrecy around a group of people whose lifestyle is at best abominable. Homosexuality is an abomination. The practices of those people is appalling. It is a pathology. It is a sickness, and instead of thinking of giving these people a preferred status and privacy, we should treat AIDS exactly the same way as any other communicable disease...” - 700 Club, 6-6-88 (source: People for the American Way Foundation) "

      Homosexuals do not do what mom and dad do in the bedroom. They don't provide children the role models that mom and dad do" - Robert Knight, http://www.frc.org/net/st96d2.html

      Causes of homosexuality include: "sex with animals"- http://www.biblebelievers.com/Cameron3.html, What Causes Homosexual Desire and Can It Be Changed?, By Paul Cameron, Ph. D.

      "33% [of gays surveyed] ingested feces via anal/oral contact"-Paul Cameron quoted at http://www.biblebelievers.com/Cameron2.html

      This argument comes down to a simple issue. They find the act of gay sex icky. Therefore, the argument goes like this. This is icky, Therefore I don’t like it. If I do not like it and it is icky it must be bad. If it is bad and icky and I do not like it is not right, or natural. This is an argument of a child. I do not like green beans cause they taste icky. I do not like this cause it is icky. The entire arguments hangs on the personal belief of what constitutes ickiness ( I coined a word). The quotes used by these leaders are used to cause a repulsive action among heterosexual population. Well they also do the same thing among the gay population. Besides what are the kids doing in the bedroom watching mom and dad Mr. Knight?

      The outcome of all this is that when looked at as a whole it creates a picture of the gay population as an extremely violent subclass of humans, bent on self destruction and the destruction of all around them. It creates an image of a person who has no ethical or moral thought, one who acts out on sexual emotions only. They paint an image of the gay community as a creature void of spirituality when in fact I would say that the gay population as a whole is more spiritual then the non-gay population of America. Our Spirituality has been one of our strengths to pull us through the image painted of us by these people to an image of what we truly are. Humans, living our lives filled with personal struggles and love. We each have our own problems, just like every other human. What makes us different is not that we are gay; it is those that hate us because we are gay that make us different. .