I don’t know if homosexuality is a lifestyle choice or not, but I am certain that bigotry is

Over the course of my life, I've met many heterosexuals.  To my knowledge, not one of them has ever spontaneously become homosexual.  Likewise, I've met many homosexuals and, to my knowledge, not one of them as ever spontaneously become heterosexual.  Likewise, I've never (to my knowledge) met a pedophile, but…

Continue ReadingI don’t know if homosexuality is a lifestyle choice or not, but I am certain that bigotry is

Sponsoring a government religion without calling it government-sponsored religion

A few years ago, in his State of the Union speech, President Bush called for a  massive increase in federal spending to help fight the AIDS epidemic in Africa.  At the time, I was suprised that Bush -- who is not known as a friend of AIDS victims, people of…

Continue ReadingSponsoring a government religion without calling it government-sponsored religion

Sophie’s Choice II: Stem Cells in the Balance.

For many months, I knew that something horrible was haunting Sophie.  Finally, one quiet night, she broke down and told me all of the details about that awful dilemma she faced several years before, while she was a prisoner in a concentration camp. Sophie had arrived at the camp with…

Continue ReadingSophie’s Choice II: Stem Cells in the Balance.

Gay Rights “Not a Civil Rights Issue”?

The Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN) supplies high school LGBT rights groups around the United States with a wealth of useful information, tools, and event and activity guides. For the last few years, I’ve appreciated the planning guides GLSEN provides as a source of brainstorming and public-relations hints. But looking through a GLSEN binder of open forum topics and public speaking tips recently, I came across an unusual and off-putting suggestion:

“Do NOT compare the LGBT Rights movement to the Civil Rights movement.”

Wait, what? The battle for LGBT rights mirrors the Civil Rights movement in a variety of ways. The reactionary backlash and lack of logic behind opponents’ arguments read exactly the same, complete with desperate biblical references. Take for example this judge’s ruling in Loving v. Virginia, a pre-Civil-Rights case on interracial marriage:

“Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.”

Indeed, and Almighty God also created Adam and Eve, not, as the social conservatives say, Adam and Steve. The slow social acceptance and increase in violent hate crimes look much the same, too. So what differentiates Gay Rights from Civil Rights, again?

Well, nothing really. It just ruffles a lot of (black, evangelical) feathers to make the comparison. Apparently GLSEN doesn’t …

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Continue ReadingGay Rights “Not a Civil Rights Issue”?