Sweetkiyyu,
...
...you scare me. Or at least, the mindset you represent... scares me.
Today of all days.
Aineo,
I feel like you're muddying the issue... in about five different directions. You don't think I should have equal marriage rights because gay activists don't give ex-gays proper consideration? You think me, an adult, wanting to have rights equal to other adults... is the equivalent of wanting to give adults the right to have sex with children? Are gay people to be unequal as children are unequal, is that what you're implying? ...if not, what?
Hate crimes, what do hate crimes have to do with marriage? Or equality? As far as I'm aware, in the areas where there's legislation against anti-gay hate crimes, it's defined by the generic "sexual orientation." In the event that a straight person is threatened, harassed, or beaten to death because they are straight, it's a hate crime. In the case you refer to, I don't believe the woman was killed because she was straight... or Roman Catholic, for that matter. She was killed because she inadvertantly pushed a very unbalanced young man over the edge. Did he hate her? I can only assume so. I assume most murderers do hate their victims. But did he hate her because of her orientation, or her religious affiliation? I doubt it. It was personal. He hated her, not what she was. At least, that would be my interpretation of what I remember reading about the case.
I disagree with the "gay school" in New York. I think it's a bad idea, and I don't believe it should be publically funded. I also think it's a bad idea -- a very bad idea -- to say "well, nobody's really equal anyhow" as justification for a very specific case of government-funded discrimination. I'm not looking for "Harrison Bergeron" so-called equality here... I'm just asking for a right which most people have, and which I, at present, do not.
You know, before I started reading and posting on this board, I actually thought I would, by the time it really mattered to me. This has been a valuable exercise in disillusionment.
webmaster,
I wholeheartedly agree.
Aineo again,
...I'll get back to you on that last one. I have too much to say, and I'm too tired to say it both coherently and politely, at the moment.