man wow sorry i've been mia for the last short lifetime.
yes i would like to hehehe. i just didnt know how to go about asking.
Yay you came back! Welcome, Sylarr :D
The point is that when you say "it's not a choice" you're unconsciously saying that if it were a choice it wouldn't be acceptable. To some degree that marginalizes people who are trans, bi, genderqueer or just questioning. What we should be saying is "It doesn't matter if it's a choice or not. There's nothing wrong with it."
I really don't think I am. The problem with what Cynthia said is that it has now set a precedent. Now that she has said it could be a choice, to suggest that it's not has now been given a stigma that is somehow negative or anti-progressive and I won't be painted that way. We should be accepted whether it's a choice or not - I've never disagreed with that. The fact that I still don't think it is a choice does not at all influence that standpoint.
Washington State (that's state, not D.C., Andy)
LOL
One thing about me and why I haven't discussed much on the topics here:
I don't care about the banning of gay marriage. I honestly don't need a ceremony or a piece of paper telling me that I'm in love with the man I go to bed with every evening. It's not about the principle to me, either. I would consider that man my husband regardless.
I don't care about the hatred towards gays. I simply just really don't care. Hate me all you want, I was raised to love all, and will love you. Take away all the rights I have, I will still find a reason to smile about everyday I live.
The rights and benefits that Toujours linked are the reason statements like "I don't need a piece of paper to tell me I'm in love" are hippie flower-child nonsense with which I have little patience, so I'm not going to go there for fear of turning into a Class A jerk; but she beat me to the punch with linking them anyway, so I'll take a different tack lol
I think it's great that you can be happy either way, and I'm sure most of us are the same. But the people who do care about gay marriage are not out there fighting because they want their special, magical day; this is so much bigger than that. The marriage issue, I find, is central to everything LGBT-related. It sets the tone for everything. It dictates the way the world looks at us. The kids out there that are getting bullied and harassed every day are so inflicted because the simple fact of being gay means that we don't have equal rights and we are not seen as equal; and this sends a message. It sends the message that we are less than anybody else. I can't see how you don't care about that principle.
While I think that 'being happy anyway' is an admirable quality, it leads to complacency. It means that you are willing to settle for less than what you deserve and more troublingly, do it with a smile on your face. I'm not trying to change your mind, but please realise that it's not silly and frivolous, what we're doing. There are reasons why we fight.
But one thing you don't do, is mess with the kids. Gay, bisexual, transgender, or straight, you don't mess with kids. You don't use them for political weaponry, you don't bully them, and you certainly don't ignore them. I hate it when I see a pro-gay ad featuring a child saying some crap like, "Why can't my two mommies get married?", or and anti-gay ad saying, "Don't let me grow up confused as to who I'm supposed to love."
This isn't their fight. Not in the least. They're right, kids look up to adults for guidance, they look up to adults for inspiration, and they will do anything for us because they love us. So why do people make them fight for us? Why go on live TV and tell your daughter to ask Michelle-what's-her-face, "Why can't my mommies marry?" Why couldn't you ask her that yourself? Why force your child to go on an anti-gay ad? Are you too afraid to say it?
So basically, leave the kids out of it. Teach them right from wrong. Bullying of ANY kind is horrible, and should not be tolerated.
Also, might I ask, why
isn't it their fight? I don't really care about kids in general but I don't really think this "messes" with them. In any case, the paid actors that do the ads saying "why can't my mommies get married" probably do represent real kids out there who are asking that question. And one day, this
will be their fight. Best we teach them now rather than later, in my opinion. On either side of the fight, the children in those ads have parents that would have endorsed what they were saying in order to allow them to say it. So they would be taught these values either way... the only difference is they are getting paid for saying it.