/Bullshit. As a black American, I take offense to you equating the struggle for civil rights with rampant perversion./
Would you equate interracial marriage with perversion? Homosexuals aren't hurting anyone. The only reason that you find homosexuality perverted is because it's different than what you're accustomed to, which, frankly, isn't all that different from racism.
/You are cheapening the African-American experience for your own political gain/
Ohoho, so the pot said to the kettle. I have nothing political to gain by this. How is it cheapening the African-American experience to extend rights to others who don't have them?
/and doing a grave diservice to all Americans who stand for equal rights and racial tolerance./
Says the person who is willing to deny homosexual Americans equal rights. Equal rights don't only apply to races. They apply for all Americans, all people. And again, you still haven't addressed the issue of black homosexuals. So, as long as they're not being discriminated against because of their race, then any other discrimination they may face is fine?
/MLK was a Christian pastor; he would not have tolerated homosexuality./
That may be true, however, you'd be surprised to find that there are Christian pastors who do support gay rights. One does not necessarily negate the other.
/And, btw, gays have all the rights that the rest of us have -/
Really? Do tell.
/they can vote, they can live peacefully in any neighborhood, they can go shopping where they please/
Sure, they can live peacefully in any neighborhood - just as long as nobody knows they're gay, including their own families. The gay experience is different from the African-American experience in this way: while African-Americans can never hide who they are because it is physical and overt (unless they're so mixed and/or pale that they can "pass" for white), homosexuality does not manifest itself bodily or physically. Thus, while homosexuals do have the option of invisibility that blacks don't have, that results in repression. Yes, homosexuals can live in their neighborhoods, they can go shopping - just as long as they pretend to be something they're not, as long as they hide who they are. I don't know about you, but that doesn't sound like freedom to me. Or equal rights, considering that heterosexuals never have to worry about holding hands with their partners/spouses in public or talking about said partners/spouses in public.
/worship as they see fit,/
Oh, yes, in churches that hate them and their very existence. How generous! Yes, I know, there are churches that do accept homosexuals and support their rights, bless them, but there are many more that do not. Would you consider it fair if you wanted to go to your local church, but if you did, you'd have to contend with the knowledge that your church thought you were inferior and less deserving than the white laypeople? Oh, and the knowledge that if you wanted to get married, they would refuse to officiate the ceremony for you and your loved one? I didn't think so.
/have freedom of speech, etc./
The parents of gay teenagers throwing them out of the house when said teenagers have come out of the closet does not show freedom of speech. Public figures being afraid to express their sexuality because of the threat of fallout or firing does not show freedom of speech. Parents not wanting their children to learn that homosexuals do indeed exist does not show freedom of speech. Gays being afraid to come out of the closet due to the fear of violence is not freedom of speech. Gay-themed books being listed as pornography does not show freedom of speech.
/Oh, did I forget to mention? They can also get married./
Yeah, except not to each other (unless they live in Massachusetts, Iowa, Vermont, Connecticut, Canada, Holland, or the other too few countries in the world where same-sex marriage is allowed). To people they're not attracted to. I'm sure you would consider that fair if that was the case for you, right?
/The idea that gays can't get married is bullshit. Gays can indeed marry, just like the rest of us; no one is stopping them from getting married to a person of the opposite sex with whom they choose to raise a family, etc./
*sigh* Do you know how many times I have heard this BS? "Oh, sure, gays can't marry the people they love, but they can marry random strangers that they're not attracted to! Because, you know, marriage isn't an expression of love or anything, it's just a status symbol! They'll just have to marry people for the sake of being married! Won't that make everybody happy in the long run?"
/They just want ot change the definition of marriage now,/
His4Life, 50 years ago, black Americans like you couldn't marry white people. 200 years ago, black Americans like you couldn't even get married to each other because they were slaves. The definition of marriage has been changed - and guess who helped make it that way? That's right - black Americans. Two men getting married or two women getting married won't change the idea of marriage. It won't make straight couples not love each other anymore. It won't cause all heterosexual marriages to collapse. Life will go on as usual, just like it did when interracial marriage was legalized.
/so that they don't have to play by the same rules that the rest of us play by./
Uh, what rules? If anything, I'd say that THEY have to play by rules that we don't have to play by, by virtue of being straight. They have to lie and hide who they are, they have to have their lives determined by the vote of complete strangers, and they have to depend on the mercy of the pastor or the head of the hospital or the state government just to be with the person they love.
/BTW, how come I never hear liberals criticize gays or attribute any wrongdoing to gays?/
Let me guess, you want us to say that they're pedophiles and perverts and communists and Muslims and that the Great Depression was all their fault, as was the Holocaust and the Dark Ages and the bombing of Hiroshima and the Salem Witch Trials, etc.? Just what wrongdoing do you want us to attribute to gays? And guess what, attributing a particular wrong to an entire group like homosexuals is no different than attributing a particular wrong to an entire group like blacks. Saying "Homos cause AIDS!" is no different than saying "blacks caused the deficit!" or "Jews caused WWI!"
/It's like gays are sinless and can do no wrong./
We're not saying that gays are perfect, we're saying that they're PEOPLE, instead of the filthy, wicked abominations that you and other homophobes insist on portraying them as. Saying that they are human beings who deserve the same rights as everyone else is not the same thing as calling them perfect.
/If liberalism were aa reeligiion (which it is), then queers would be its angels. lol/
Yes, because every Sunday, I attend the Church of Liberalism which is presided over by the ghost of Ted Kennedy himself. *eyeroll* I think you may have been reading too many of Ann Coulter's books. LOL.