A gay lifestyle is a choice. And to equate such is an insult to the African-American community and diminishes its brutal struggles of the past.
African-Americans did not choose to be unmercifully persecuted and denied constitutional rights.
Put to a proper vote, the people of Maine have spoken loud and clear.
61 comments
Okay, if you are not gay, you have no right in saying whether or not it is a "choice" or not. You can't make up a definition of something you don't like to justify why you don't like it. Logic doesn't work that way.
Comparing it to African-American struggles is pretty drastic, I agree, but to be honest with you, discrimination still goes on for them. I mean, comparing the general lifestyles of blacks in America (income, education, and other factors of quality of life), white people still have the lead by a light-year.
As for Maine's decision, what a step backward...so disappointing.
African-Americans did not choose to be unmercifully persecuted and denied constitutional rights.
Neither do gays you moron. In a civilized world people shouldn't be persecuted for things they can't change (like skin colour) nor for things they do in their own time and privacy (like being gay).
"African-Americans did not choose to be unmercifully persecuted and denied constitutional rights."
So if we started unmercifully persecuting and denying the rights of those who CHOSE to be Christians that would be okay then would it? Also Homosexuality is not a choice. Your argument fails either way.
"African-Americans did not choose to be unmercifully persecuted and denied constitutional rights."
I dont think anyone (except christians who seem to have a hard on for persecution complexes) chooses to be discriminated agsint. Even if homosexuality was a choice, it doesnt diminish the fact they they are unmercifully persecuted and denied constitutional rights.
Choice or not, so what? It is a free country, and there is no reason, why gays should be denied constitutional rights.
Living the lifestyle of gay culture is a choice, but being gay in itself isn't a choice, any more than you and I choose to be straight. Even if it WAS a choice, what right would you have to persecute them? Are you honestly criticizing these people for choosing to come out of the closet, thus subjecting themselves to your bigotry? You sound an awful lot like rape-apologists who criticize the victim for having been alone in a dark alley or dressed a certain way, all the while ignoring the real villain -- the actual perpetrator of the crime.
Your rationalizing may differ in its specifics, but you sound a lot like the folks who defended racism prior to the mid 20th century. In a century, society will look back upon you in the same way it looks back at racism and sexism today... and society will be correct in despising people like you.
The struggle for acceptance and equal rights is the comparision. If you can't see that, it's only because you refuse to.
No, not the same struggle (which is why that comparision is actually seldom used) but similiar
You know what I'd love to see? With all of the states that are voting to ban gay marriage in the form of referenda on their ballots, how about have the referendum and then prohibit any radio and television advertising to promote either side of the debate.
Force the voters to think about the actual issues behind these ballot initiatives rather than succumb to the fearmongering propagated and perpetuated by those opposed to it.
Then let's see what the people actually believe in.
If it is a choice I dare you to pick being gay. I double fucking dare you.
You know what, I am sure that there are some people who more make a choice to be gay or bi or whatever, but to deny that there is a genetic component to homosexuality is just rediculous and no longer worth arguing about.
In addition, so what if it is a choice? Why should people that choose to be with someone of the same gender be fair game for your "unmerciful persecution" and be denied constitutional rights. I really don't even understand why it makes a difference and that makes you wrong twice and therefore a douchebag.
"A gay lifestyle is a choice."
Then I challenge you to be gay for 10 minutes. Go on. Find someone of your own gender sexually attractive for 10 minutes. Don't worry, it's a choice so you can switch back when your time is up.
"And to equate such is an insult to the African-American community and diminishes its brutal struggles of the past."
Eh?
What the hell does this have to do with what you just said?
"African-Americans did not choose to be unmercifully persecuted and denied constitutional rights."
Of course not. I still don't see what this has to do with "gay lifestyle" being a "choice".
"Put to a proper vote, the people of Maine have spoken loud and clear."
Whereas you yourself have spoken loudly but not clearly...
We all know that sexual preference isn't a choice, but would it really mater if it were? In the US, the right to freedom of speech is considered the highest of protected rights. Surely, opening one's mouth is a choice, but we still protect that quite strongly. Whether it's a choice or not should have no bearing on gay rights.
In the 60's, a majority of some southern states thought black people shouldn't have rights. That didn't make it truth or the right thing to do. That's why we have a representative democracy and not a true democracy. True democracy, actual rule by the majority opinion, is rather dangerous.
One day, Americans will mature enough to realize that issues of human rights aren't decided by majority votes but by legislation.
After all, had it been up to voters, African-Americans would still be segregated second-class citizens in many states.
Gays did not choose to be unmercifully persecuted and denied constitutional rights, either, but religious people like yourself decided to throw that at them, too.
<<A gay lifestyle is a choice.>>
What "lifestyle"? And it's not a choice.
<<And to equate such is an insult to the African-American community and diminishes its brutal struggles of the past.>>
Or it highlights OUR struggles, because, again, we have people being denied their rights based on an immutable characteristic.
<<African-Americans did not choose to be unmercifully persecuted and denied constitutional rights.>>
NEITHER DID WE!
<<Put to a proper vote, the people of Maine have spoken loud and clear.>>
Civil rights should NOT be put up to a vote. They should be automatic for ALL.
"A gay lifestyle is a choice."
It might very well be but I'm guessing that for the vast majority of gay people it's not. And even if it is, what the fuck has it got to do with you?
"And to equate such is an insult to the African-American community and diminishes its brutal struggles of the past. "
Bullshit. You're hardly the only community to face brutal struggle. Learn some history.
"African-Americans did not choose to be unmercifully persecuted and denied constitutional rights."
And neither do gay people. And none of the groups throughout history who have been enslaved - Europeans kidnapped and enslaved in Africa by their hundreds of thousands, just for instance - chose that either. Your point?
"Put to a proper vote, the people of Maine have spoken loud and clear. "
Absolutely, they're a bunch of bigoted arseholes.
Strange how some people think that there are only so many civil rights to go around, and if another group gets rights, your group will not. A rising tide lifts all boats, Robin. We're all in this together.
Who in their right mind would CHOOSE to be gay? Seriously?!?!?! They're treated like shit, denied basic human rights, beaten and denied jobs (whether employers admit it or not) and basically just shit on on a regular basis.
All you morons who accuse gay people of choosing to be gay should maybe take that into consideration.
BTW Robin, when did you make the heterosexual lifestyle choice?
"African-Americans did not choose to be unmercifully persecuted and denied constitutional rights"
Yeah, neither did gays. No matter how much you want to believe it's a choice, it's not.
I find it tragically ironic that whenever people like Robin screech that homosexuals have no right to compare their struggles to the Civil Rights Movement and that their suffering is in no way comparable to the suffering of African-Americans, that they never once mention or consider that there are African-American homosexuals.
To everyone wondering when Robin chose to be straight - well, he/she probably thinks he/she did! I've come across any number of "it's a choice"ers who have said that it WAS a choice for them. And while they go on and on about how they are definitely straight, the way they talk, they sound pretty bi. I think most people who claim it's a choice are themselves bi, in denial, and projecting this onto everyone else (since, like the religious, they have a hard time envisioning people who are different than themselves). How else would they believe it's a choice? It's only a choice if both options are open to everybody.
A gay lifestyle is a choice.
Being gay is not a choice. Thinking is a choice. Clearly, you chose not to.
African-Americans did not choose to be unmercifully persecuted and denied constitutional rights.
Neither did homosexuals. And they've been persecuted for far longer, even.
Pretend you were right about choice.
Your argument says we're justified in persecuting people who make choices we don't like.
I'm absolutely certain voting is a choice. Since Republicans were the minority in the last election, people should persecute them for making a choice the majority disagree with.
What's fair is fair.
"A gay lifestyle is a choice. "
He's right that the life style is a choice, but being homosexual is not.
They can either choose to remain in the closet and be unhappy for the rest of their lives, or live how they feel is best for themselves and be happy without some bigot telling them how to live.
"African-Americans did not choose to be unmercifully persecuted and denied constitutional rights. "
Gay people don't choose to be persecuted or denied constitutional rights either. Get a clue.
Ham <i>chose</i> to tell his brothers and sisters that he saw his dad naked. And you know how people are responsible for their fathers' sins and all.
Oh, I'm sorry, was I using the Bible as an excuse to be a bigoted asshole?
A gay lifestyle is a choice.
Please, enlighten me. Tell me when was the day you choose to have sex with a person with a penis or the person with a vagina?
And to equate such is an insult to the African-American community and diminishes its brutal struggles of the past.
You don't get it do you?
African-Americans did not choose to be unmercifully persecuted and denied constitutional rights.
Neither do homosexuals. The gay couple that lives in the apartment next do to the fiancee and I are discriminated against.
Put to a proper vote, the people of Maine have spoken loud and clear.
NEVER put civil rights up to a vote. Civil rights should be automatic.
I'm really not in the best position to compare black and gay civil-rights (or liberation) movements -- I'm gay, but I'm white. Robin L. Quillion, as a heterosexual-supremacist, is probably heterosexual, and so is not in a good position to make the comparison regardless of race. (OTOH, a few radical black-lib heterosexuals like Huey Newton were quite willing to call for solidarity between the black-lib, gay-lib and women's-lib movements based on the clear parallels.)
So, ask a few people who stand at the intersection of the black and gay civil-rights movements about the comparison -- like Bayard Rustin and James Baldwin and Audre Lorde. They all talked about racism in the white gay-rights movement; but all of them had a pretty strong sense of the ways in which the movements are similar.
We didn't get to vote on interracial marriages, women's and black sufferage, segergation, or really any other civil right. What makes the gays so "special" that heteros get to vote on their rights unlike everyone else?
If put to a vote, slavery would still be the law of the land.
And remember that a lot of gay bashers really did 'choose' to be straight.
way to completely miss the point, dumbass.
1) being gay is not a choice.
2) gay people didn't ask to be persecuted and denied constitutional rights either.
A gay lifestyle is a choice.
Is a striaght "lifestyle" also a choice?
And to equate such is an insult to the African-American community and diminishes its brutal struggles of the past.
African Americas were not the only people to struggle in the past.
African-Americans did not choose to be unmercifully persecuted and denied constitutional rights.
Neither did homosexuals.
Put to a proper vote, the people of Maine have spoken loud and clear.
The majority of people in some states voted "loud and clear" for jim crowe laws. Doesn't make it right.
African-Americans did not choose to be unmercifully persecuted and denied constitutional rights.
Neither did we, you bloody idiot.
So, you can persecute anybody, as long as they CHOOSE to be that way. That includes...................well, virtually everybody.
A straight lifestyle is also a choice. The sexual orientation itself is not a choice, of course, but the style in which you conduct your life is.
Homosexuals have also had brutal struggles in the past, asshole; to not acknowledge that is an insult to the homosexual community. Both groups (btw, they intermix, as there are gay and lesbian African-Americans) have brutal struggles in the present as well.
Homosexuals did not choose to be unmercifully persecuted and denied constitutional rights, either. States, communities, companies, teams and individuals chose to unmercifully persecute both African-Americans and homosexuals, and to deny them constitutional rights. Non-black, non-gay people are the villains here, not the black people or the gays.
You ought not to vote on human rights, asshole!
Confused?
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