to all regardless of race, religion, sexuality or gender. That man, or for
that matter woman can no more help being gay than someone else can help
being male, or female or within a perceived racial group. It is the same
situation. There should be no discrimination based on a physiological
differences. That is in part what the constitution implies.
As for the issues, consider this, during the holocaust, there were three
major groups in the Nazi's concentration camps, people of Jewish decent,
those descended from Gypsies and homosexuals. That is the reason for the
pink triangle that's used by many gay rights group as a symbol. It was the
badge that was sewn on the prisoners uniforms to distinguish them from Jews
or Gypsies. They have suffered about as much discrimination in this country
as any other minority. There are still a lot of hate crimes directed against
gays, consider Matthew Sheppard murder of a few years ago. More recently a
16 year old in Minnesota was beaten nearly to death because he was an
outspoken advocate of gay rights. There are over 1000 incidents of hate
crimes on gays in 2002 alone (see http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/hatecrime2002.pdf
and http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius_02/html/web/offreported/02-nhatecrime12.html
for the actual numbers).
They do not have access to the same rights and protections under the laws.
Consider this case, I know a couple who has been together for about 30 years
now. Both men are estranged from their families for some time because they
are gay. If either Mark or John have a heart attack, it will not be their
significant other who will be able to make the medical decisions regarding
their partner's life, it will be essentially a stranger. They have no right
to see their partner in the hospital (only spouses or close relatives are
allowed in). It this just or right?
You have far more protection under the law than male or female homosexuals
have. You have legal recourse if you are fired from your job because of your
colour. If you're gay, chances are you have no such recourse. Same with
housing, and other forms of equal access. Many who hold more extreme
viewpoint do not even consider gays to be human. Recently several fundie
ministers have advocated setting up concentration camps for homosexuals. Is
this right?
Generally the scientific consensus is that homosexuality is based on a
series of factors that are genetic and prenatal hormonal changes during the
first 3 or 4 months of pregnancy. Social factors play very little part in
determining gender orientation.
In other words one cannot help being gay no more than one can help being a
man, or a woman or a member of a minority group.
larry
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Monique Boea [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sent: Tuesday, June 08, 2004 8:29 AM
> To: CF-Community
> Subject: RE: Conversation Topic - Abortion
>
>
> Larry, you guys are all of a sudden bringing up the race
> issue because you now know that i am black.
>
> The gay issue is not the same.
>
> I can't hide my race. I was born black and frankly didn't ask
> to come here to help build a country that my people still
> don't have equal access to. We weren't even considered human
> beings in this country.
>
> (Let's not go there, please)
>
>
> A gay white man, steps out of his front door and no one may
> know he is gay (unless he flaunts it of course). He can go to
> an interview and no one will know he is gay. He can apply for
> housing and no one will know he is gay.
>
> I cannot hide the fact that I am black...this is not the same issue.
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