Gay Activists to Protest

[Big Don]

Gay activists to protest Orlando event, notion that homosexuality is 'curable'

Jeff Kunerth |Sentinel Staff Writer June 6, 2008Orlando Sentinel Story
Excerpt:




Gay activists and clergy are planning a silent protest Saturday morning outside a conference of ex-gays who contend homosexuality can be cured by religious counseling.

The conference, called "Love Won Out" and sponsored by the conservative Colorado-based Christian organization Focus on the Family, has sparked controversy and outrage with several billboards in Orlando and other cities that host the traveling event. The billboards declare: "I Questioned Homosexuality and discovered love won out." The group's message is that change is possible.

"For gays, this is the same as saying you don't have to be black, you don't have to be Jewish," said Wayne Besen, executive director of TruthWinsOut.org, a Brooklyn-based gay advocacy group. "They represent us as broken and incomplete people."

Protesters, organized by Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians and Gays, will meet outside First Presbyterian Church in Orlando, where organizers say the conference is expected to draw about 500 participants. The conference coincides with Gay Days, which annually attracts thousands of gays to Orlando and Disney World.
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Don't you just love their respect for freedom of speech?

"For gays, this is the same as saying you don't have to be black, you don't have to be Jewish,"

What a load of crap. Black people have NO CHOICE in whether people notice they are black. Gay people do. That, alone is a HUGE difference...

 

[terryl965]

Some people and groups will never learn.

 

[RandomPhantom700]

Don't you just love their respect for freedom of speech?

Freedom of speech doesn't mean you can say whatever you want and nobody can oppose you, just that the government can't shut you up. The gay rights activists here aren't trying to have the government shut down this Focus on the Family event, they're just protesting it. Both groups have the right to speak, and the right to speak BACK.

What a load of crap. Black people have NO CHOICE in whether people notice they are black. Gay people do. That, alone is a HUGE difference...

Ah, this can of worms. Apparently, Mr. Besen disagrees with you on whether homosexuality is a choice--I won't offer my opinion, because I'm not gay and I haven't done extensive reading into the issue. I certainly don't regard my being straight as a choice, just how I am. However, if some group put together a rally to say "You don't have to be Christian (or Jewish, or Pagan, what have you), look, these people got over it!", there would be quite the vehement response. What's the difference?

 

[Twin Fist]

the gay activist absolutely have the right to protest the event, but that shouldnt cause the event to be shut down.

 

[Omar B]

Hell yeah protest. By what right does a religious organization think it's their duty to fix people who do not fit into their narrow view of the world, love and sex. Sexual orientation is not a choice and no amount of praying is gonna purge you of it, just the same as no amount of praying will change your skin color or weight or whaterver else.

Live and let live. Gays don't cause you phisical or financial harm so I don't see why you should take up something that has absoulutly nothing to do with you and your existence upon your own head.

I love and enjoy my gay friends and would not chance them one iota. Love's beautiful thing wherever you see it and no matter the shape it takes.

 

[Ray]

Freedom of speech doesn't mean you can say whatever you want and nobody can oppose you, just that the government can't shut you up. The gay rights activists here aren't trying to have the government shut down this Focus on the Family event, they're just protesting it. Both groups have the right to speak, and the right to speak BACK.

I too agree with the right of the people to hold divergent views and to articulate them; so long as they don't disagree with me.

 

[Andy Moynihan]

Guess these folks decided to just ignore that part of the Bible that says " Judge not, lest ye be judged...".

 

[Empty Hands]

Black people have NO CHOICE in whether people notice they are black. Gay people do.

So, you could wake up tomorrow and choose to be attracted to men?

 

[elder999]

Gay activists to protest Orlando event, notion that homosexuality is 'curable'. The conference coincides with Gay Days, which annually attracts thousands of gays to Orlando and Disney World.

Seems kind of deliberately provocative to me, having the conference coincide with Gay Days, but I guess that's kind of the point of freedom of speech.

Don't you just love their respect for freedom of speech?

Ironically enough, see above.

What a load of crap. Black people have NO CHOICE in whether people notice they are black. Gay people do. That, alone is a HUGE difference...

Well, I'm black-I kind of have a choice...maybe 'cause I'm kind of black. I have a kind of African name, genetically confused hair, and peanut-butter colored skin. I've been taken for black, American Indian and Polynesian (Samoan, Hawaiian, etc...) all correcty. Labels like "black" should mean less and less all the time.....and apparently do.

....heck, some black people argue that Barack Obama isn't "black." :lol:

As for whether or not gays have a choice....well,I dunno. I've known about girls since kindergarten. Knew there was "something" I wanted to do with them since 1st grade-didn't know what it was, just knew it was something......can't imagine "choosing" to have sex with men anymore than I can "choosing" to be white. Know enough gay people who relate similar things about their pre-sexual feelings for the same sex in childhood-including my daughter-to know that I'm on to something there.

Hell, Don, how much money would you take to "choose" to have sex with another man? :lol:

Would you have sex with Mike Tyson for a million dollars? Two million dollars? :lol:

Maybe Michael Jackson??

Lastly, most of the science being done indicates that homosexuality has at least a genetic component, if not genetic causes. Of course, those "scientists" are the same ones that say that global climate change has a man made component, that oil is a finite resource that we'll ultimately run out of, and that sometimes say (usually say, if they're not from the U.S.A.) that there is no God, so they must be wrong......

 

[Big Don]

So, you could wake up tomorrow and choose to be attracted to men?

Is your gaydar so strong that you can spot them behind walls?
A black person is obviously black, to all those who see him, in this, he has no choice. To claim a gay person is the same is foolish, no one can read minds, ergo, unless the gay person CHOOSES to let everyone around him KNOW he is gay, no one knows. That is a significant difference.

 

[elder999]

Is your gaydar so strong that you can spot them behind walls?
A black person is obviously black, to all those who see him, in this, he has no choice. To claim a gay person is the same is foolish, no one can read minds, ergo, unless the gay person CHOOSES to let everyone around him KNOW he is gay, no one knows. That is a significant difference.

THat's what you meant? I guess you're sort of right.

Of course, people immediately know I'm heterosexual when I show up holding my beautiful wife's hand, which, after ten years, we're still pretty silly about. Heck, I sing to her in public-show tunes, sometimes-some people think that's pretty gay, but she likes it, and the first rone of the rules of a good marriage is to find out what your partner wants and give it to them...:lol:

I guess gay people shouldn't hold hands.

At work, I have pictures on my desk: son, daughter, son &daughter in law, daughter & partner, wife, me & wife.....anyone can clearly see from the pictures that since I sired children and have a wife, I must be, ostensibly, heterosexual....

Guess gay people shouldn't have photographs at work..

I throw a lot of parties, and we get invited to a few. Everyone can clearly see that we're together, at our house or elsewhere....

Guess gay people should stay home, and not have anyone over....

Ditto restaruants, shopping, gas stations, church, etc., etc., etc.

 

[Empty Hands]

Is your gaydar so strong that you can spot them behind walls?
A black person is obviously black, to all those who see him, in this, he has no choice. To claim a gay person is the same is foolish, no one can read minds, ergo, unless the gay person CHOOSES to let everyone around him KNOW he is gay, no one knows. That is a significant difference.

I see what you mean now, but you are still wrong on the merits. It is still a question of identity and freedom, just like being black or Jewish. Actually, Jewish is a good comparison which the person in the article mentioned and you ignored, since there are no obvious physical signs that one must be Jewish.

 

[Big Don]

THat's what you meant? I guess you're sort of right.

Of course, people immediately know I'm heterosexual when I show up holding my beautiful wife's hand, which, after ten years, we're still pretty silly about.

are you compelled to? or do you have a CHOICE?

Heck, I sing to her in public-show tunes, sometimes-some people think that's pretty gay, but she likes it, and the first rone of the rules of a good marriage is to find out what your partner wants and give it to them...:lol:

But, you do these things BECAUSE YOU CHOOSE TO

I guess gay people shouldn't hold hands.

At work, I have pictures on my desk: son, daughter, son &daughter in law, daughter & partner, wife, me & wife.....anyone can clearly see from the pictures that since I sired children and have a wife, I must be, ostensibly, heterosexual....

Guess gay people shouldn't have photographs at work..

I throw a lot of parties, and we get invited to a few. Everyone can clearly see that we're together, at our house or elsewhere....

Guess gay people should stay home, and not have anyone over....

Ditto restaruants, shopping, gas stations, church, etc., etc., etc.

Yeah, you have to pity gay people, they have no control over their behavior... Oh, that wasn't what you meant? How odd, that is the implication you made.

 

[RandomPhantom700]

Is your gaydar so strong that you can spot them behind walls?
A black person is obviously black, to all those who see him, in this, he has no choice. To claim a gay person is the same is foolish, no one can read minds, ergo, unless the gay person CHOOSES to let everyone around him KNOW he is gay, no one knows. That is a significant difference.

Y'know, this would be a relevant point if we were talking about, say, an employment discrimination situation, where whether the gay person chooses to display their orientation would be a factor. However, the issue we were discussing was being gay, not displaying being gay. The Focus on the Family rally in this thread is addressing all homosexuals, whether they be in the closet, out but private about it, or flagrantly displaying their sexuality in a pink suit jacket and stilletos(sp?). A subtle distinction (I guess), but an important one.

 

[Andy Moynihan]

Well let's see what being gay in this country gets you:

*Religious condemnation

*Public scorn

*Targeted for hate crimes

*Social ostracism still persists in many places.


Given this environment, common sense alone would beg the question:

If being gay was just a "choice" one could "make" why the hell would anyone CHOOSE it?

 

[elder999]

are you compelled to? or do you have a CHOICE?But, you do these things BECAUSE YOU CHOOSE TO
Yeah, you have to pity gay people, they have no control over their behavior... Oh, that wasn't what you meant? How odd, that is the implication you made.

So, what you're shouting is that gay people shouldn't choose to hold hands, have photographs, go out in public together at all, have people over to their house, etc., etc., etc.? That they shouldn't choose to exercise the same basic interactions than the rest of us, because...why,exactly? Becuse their "deviant" behavior is contagious? Offensive?

I mean, sure, I choose to do those things, and I don't see why a gay person shouldn't choose to do those things-or has to choose to do those things-so I'm quite confused at this point, Don.

Are you saying gay people are okay as long as they stay in the closet "where they belong?"

I honestly don't understand what you mean-you're gonna have to be clear.

 

[Twin Fist]

Well let's see what being gay in this country gets you:

*Religious condemnation

*Public scorn

*Targeted for hate crimes

*Social ostracism still persists in many places.


Given this environment, common sense alone would beg the question:

If being gay was just a "choice" one could "make" why the hell would anyone CHOOSE it?

Not so fast

it also gets you:

protected class status, making it much harder to fire you

your credit isnt good enough to get that car or apartment? just scream "gay bashing" and you get your way

last time I checked, gay was now in, thanks to will and grace, queer eye, sex and the city, etc, hollywood practicly preaches how cool gay is....


sure, the bad things you mentioned do happen, but less and less these days.

 

[RandomPhantom700]

Not so fast

it also gets you:

protected class status, making it much harder to fire you

Bunk. Sexual Orientation has yet to be added to the Civil Rights Act; thus, if sexual orientation is a protected class, it is based on state decision, not federal. Besides, if you're fired for a legitimate reason (work sucks, you're always late, etc.), being gay won't help in the least.

your credit isnt good enough to get that car or apartment? just scream "gay bashing" and you get your way

Show me any significant evidence that this occurs with any regularity.

last time I checked, gay was now in, thanks to will and grace, queer eye, sex and the city, etc, hollywood practicly preaches how cool gay is....

Many argue that such glamorization of homosexuals is actually damaging. As we speak, my sister is watching "Queer as Folk", and I gotta say, its presentation of gays is unbelievably skewed. I wouldn't be so quick to use those shows as examples of gay people not having it so bad.

 

[Cryozombie]

Ive often wondered on the nature vs nurture end of the sexual preference debate:

If sexual preference is somthing wired into your genetics...

Why do we only "extend our tolerence" based on Gender preference?

 

[BrandiJo]

Churchs as a whole try and fix things that aren't broken, and from what i have seen and heard and been told homosexuals, gay people, lesbians and trans gender people are broken. But are they really? I mean who are we to look at another human and say you are more flawed them me I must fix you weather you think you need it or not? They might not be the creation that God had in mind when he created us back when (if you believe that~ i do but thats just me) but he didn't intend for death to come to us either, or sickness, or any other sin that we brought to our selfs. So why is this "sin" so much more terrible then the rest? why don't we have group healing sessions for the lairs, thieves, blasphemers, and those who take his name in vein? Why is this group such a focus?

But they are a focus, and they have just as much right to be how they are as i have a right to be how i am, and i hope they do protest and i hope that someone gets the message.. they are no more broken then the rest of this world and i hope that the group holding these meetings speaks out too, but i hope they do it with love instead of hate...


and the whole nature verse nurture I'm not so sure where i stand on that and for protected rights and gay bashing people need to grow up. What they do in their bedrooms does not hurt you or anyone else so keep your noise out of it and be blissfully clueless.