Good stuff

read article

I've been here for 15yrs, and still I love this city.

I thought that was a beautiful article at least until the author went into theories about homophobia and bestiality. The idea of having sex with someone who is my gender isn't an appealing option for me, but love is what counts. Why some people get so fearful when two guys or two girls love each other is a mystery to me. I don't think relating that to being afraid of bestiality explains the gay hater's fears.

true. sometimes he get's a little out there, even for my liberal heart. but, overall i think the article is great and shows why so many of us love living where we do.

i figure, if they really dont want gays to marry, how 'bout a gay tax break?

ya know, to help cover the legal fees needed to write up legal docs to gain the same benefits as other couples (power of attorney, child custody, etc, etc).

The article mentioned the Christian Right; this made me wonder, as I am not a religious scholar, is religious based anti-homosexual sentiment a purely Christian thing, or does it also appear in the Islamic and Jewish religious community? And how about non-western religions?

I think that in the animal part of the human mind, there is something that wants to break down people into two categories: like me and not like me. Once you have two categories, it is natural (although not correct) to want to rank them: one is better and the other is worse. This theory help explain the universal tendency towards racism - that person isn't like me; they are better or worse. I think this is referred to as Tribal Mentality.

Finally, I think that partial ignorance is part of the problem. I saw a new article about a small northern town. There was a young black man attending college there; he dressed and groomed himself well and was to all appearances an upright citizen in all ways. He said that one of the sounds that hurt him the most was hearing electric car door locks click if he walked near a parked car with someone in it. It wasn't that the (white) people had ever had any problems with african-american; it was that they probably did not know any personally, and were influenced by TV and other news reports that tend to mention only black in relation to crimes.

Similarly, I can understand how people can form erroneous impressions about the gay community. It is very possible that the majority of Americans do not know any gay people personally (or at least openly gay people). If you see a Gay Rights parade on TV, there are probably going to be guys in black leather and bondage chains, "Dykes on Bikes" and other things that disturb Joe and Jane Citizen. Unfortunately the gay community as a whole cannot distance themselves from these fringe elements because they cannot afford dissent to harm the advancement of rights. So, everything gets lumped together.

Finally, back to the animal mind thing, I think that there will always be anti-gay sentiment. Sex is certainly not exclusively for reasons of reproduction any more, but it is inseparably related. Some people will always look at someone who has no desire for intercourse with the opposite sex (and therefore not possibly reproducing) as abnormal. With these people, the best you can hope for is that their thinking mind can overcome their innate tendencies. But in order for this to work, you have to appeal to and retrain their intellect. I fear that the whole gay marriage thing has been structured to appeal to people's emotions, not to their intellect, i.e. "it's about love", not "it's about the right to make medical decisions." As a result, people who have a natural tendency towards anti-homosexual feelings will react emotionally. This can only reinforce their opinions, not change it.

nice dusty!

i love it when people think for a bit and then express their thoughts (of which, sometimes i forget to do!).

I might do the same thing if a weird looking white guy walked near the car. Alot of women would, too. The speculation here is barely more convincing to me than speculating that this young black man was imagining seeing racist behavior around him. It may have been TV and the news influencing behavior, but it can't be proven.

A long while ago I was at work (in a pharmacy), walking around doing my normal job and to cut a longer story short, a black guy basically accused me of being racist because I was supposedly "watching" him in the store.

1) It was my job to watch for shoplifers (and he obviously did not have the appearance of one, but oh, I was "following" him. )

2) I wasn't watching him any more than I would watch a normal customer. See, I try to be available to help people without them having to wait two minutes until I notice that they need help.

He said I "had a problem"...heh, excuse me, I think it's the other way around. I don't like generalizing, so I won't, but there are people out there who are so paranoid about racism that they see it when it's not there. Heck, the guy had such light (black) skin I didn't even notice he was black until he spoke and I looked more closely.

Arg...sorry for hijack

That could very well be; the speculation was the point of the news story, not my original thought, although it did seem reasonable to me. And certainly the influence of news is not the sole factor. But a "weird looking white guy" might have something obviously wrong - talking to imaginary people, oddly-dressed, unshaven and dirty, something like that. But a clean-cut, conservatively dressed and normal-acting african-american man isn't in the same class. (And I know that you were not implying that he was). The point of the news story was that white people were perceiving him as a "weird" or otherwise threatening character, for no other reason than his skin color. The difference here is that if the exact same person was white, but identically dressed and mannered, the door locks would not have clicked. Also, if the person in the car would have locked the door if anyone were coming, he would not have heard so many of them; the doors would already have been locked.

I do agree that there is a problem with people perceiving racism, and sexism, and whatever else, where none exists. However, while I am hispanic, I do not appear so, and I have almost never been on the receiving end of racism. Therefore, I cannot say that I would not overreact either.