Why does this country hate gay people?

lol, yeah . . . change in Texas doesn't happen too often. We still have corporal punishment in our public schools. It'll be interesting to see how the election pans out if Kinky gathered enough signatures. I think that is a big IF though.

Yeah, they are a HUGE influence. At least about the past 10 years or so

im not gay nor is anyone im going to roo with, but i remember there used to be a gay phish fansite brianandrobert.com or I think (named after the song). They may have a bonaroo equivalent or something. In case anyone is interested......

Philly? Delaware? It's hard for me to take your opinion seriously. Correct me if I'm wrong, but have you ever met someone on the "Christian right." Have you asked them their opinion on gay marriage? Cause I probably know a good deal more about the issue and the beliefs of those on the "Christian Right" than either of you.

Most Christians I know do believe that homosexuality is a sin. But most don't hate homosexuals. Most aren't completely confident in that belief. And most believe that marriage under God and under state are two separate things and therefore federal or state intereference into gay marriage is unconstitutional. I would venture to suggest the illusion of a majority of Christians hating gay people has more to do with how poorly the democratic party does at even attempting to mobilize Christian voters on a subject like gay marriage. I know many Christians who would have voted down the gay marriage amendment had they been motivated too. Sadly, most of them remain unmotivated while the Republicans use fear and insincerity to delude older Christians into thinking gay marriage is an afront to their personal belief system.

Frankly, I think gay marriage is a herring thrown out by Republicans to distract their constituents from the real hot button issue, abortion. I would venture to suggest that abortion and not gay marriage is also the issue that drove many Christians away from the democratic party to begin with and IS the issue that most Christians decided to become actively political about. The DNC's total shutting out of pro-life democrats at their conventions was a major step in driving the Christian faith dangerously to the right. Cause let's face it people, the last thing any of us want is right wing politics and religious fervor becoming permanent bedmates. All the Republicans had to do to win the "Christian Right" was to give them a voice, pure and simple. You can't tell me the democrats can't at least pretend to care.

and also its really hard to give a sh.it about what you think when your issues are forcing others to have unwanted children, keeping condoms out of the hands of sexually active people under the age of 18 because you would rather stick your heads in the ground and pretend it dosent happen, and not allowing gay people to get married. its pretty hard to take seriously. these are the people that time left behind and eventually it will finally go away. now that there are scientific explanations for hurricanes and sand storms theres is little to warrant any belief in the whole god thing. just the brain washing every sunday. and more and more people come to the realizatin that thats some bogus stuff every generation

there are so many more important things going on. but these people are off in there own little world controlling things. its scary

exactly right. i guess its no surprise that the religous right can be so easily manipulated and be completely ignorant of facts in front of their faces. they have been practicing for hundereds of years.

OK, I'll throw in my $.02

I've been a political junkie for the past 4 years including working on numerous campaigns and running for office myself. The situation can change. I think there's a large difference in the political landscape with Bush at 49% support than the current 27% (has it dropped below that yet?). Basically, this means that he's losing support even amongst his base. Sure, his vote will never vote Democrat, but they just might stay at home and not vote or undervote in lots of races. Both can have a huge effect on the final numbers. Another interesting thing to keep an eye on for the '08 presidential election is the majority electoral college pact floating around in some states... it basicallly says that once enough states ratify it to make the ratifying states represent a majority of the electoral college vote, they will change their selection method from the winner of their state's popular vote to the national popular vote, effectively eliminating the electoral college from the picture... You win the popular vote for president, you win the election.

There's so much to cover, so little time to continue typing... As for the topic of this thread, I hope everyone got to catch Jon Stewart tonight ripping William Bennett a new one. My favorite (not an exact transcript, but it's the same concepts at least)...

Bennett: "This debate is about whether or not gays should be able to get married"
Stewart: "No, this debate is about whether gays are a part of the human condition or some random fetish"

Bennett basically froze and Jon called for a commercial break to let him recover

Colbert did a great job following up at the start of his show...

"Today the Senate reconvened to take up the most serious issue facing this country... monogomous gay couples dedicated to living their lives together"

As a side note... tuppy, you must be kidding... i would have never guessed ;P

your right. i used to burn down with this rastafarian priest dude and he was bad ass. crazy as hell. but fun to chill with and certainly had some original thoughts. i guess i should make that statement under the context of a debate about american politics.

ok, so i am very very new on this board. the above quote... ah, nevermind...

all i wanted to say was my beautiful girlfriend and i will be enjoying our first bonnaroo this year! it's great that so many people are accepting, and talking about this ammendment. south carolina is voting on its own ammendment this november and we will be working against it. getting people together to talk about it is the best way to ensure hate doesn't become law in this country.
thanks to all of you who speak up against hate!!!!!!

hate sucks

the senate voted it down 49-48:

www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/06/07/same.sex.marriage/index.html

49-48 is not exactly comforting.

i must have missed it but how is the denver decrim ahve no value to it. i know state and federal laws are still in effect but it helps. i have spent a lot of time in ann arbor and poeople say the same thing about the laws there. but i have been busted 3 times in AA and they took my stuff and let me go each time. i didint even get the ticket that they can issue you. i got busted once on university prorperty(where it is not decriminalized) and it resulted in an arrest and court. so i would say that it is helpful. just not as much as the news makes it out to be. and at least it garnersnational attention for the cause and shows us that not everyone has lost their mind in this country. it is a small step but a step none the less

UMMM I have lived in NJ and CT my whole life... and those states are about as blue as you can get and I know members of the fundamentalist "Christian Right." I don't hang out with them, but I do come across them from time to time, especially being actively involved on my campus with student government and as an RA, where you don't get to pick who you work with.

I do ask every one of them who insist on trying to save me (I don't bring it up unless they do - and then the gloves are off) and I can say that you're sort of right in that they don't say they "hate" gay people (like the complete wackjobs protesting soldiers funerals), but they do all say that they believe gay people are going to burn in hell for all eternity. Unless of course they redeem themselves by asking for salvation, and "choosing" to not be gay anymore, blah blah blah.

So you're right, they don't "hate" them, they just 100% believe in their hearts that they are disgusting, morally reprehensible, damned sinners.... and that is close enough to hate for me!!!





I was going to bring that up, glad to see you already did Steward gave Bennett quite the smackdown last night, I was practically cheering when I saw it.

If you missed it you can go to www.comedycentral.com and click on the motherload link in the bottom middle "Daily show: interview with Bennett" is one of the first choices that comes up.

I agree with you that we should eliminate the electoral college, with the way our country has involved since it's inception, it's definately not a necessity anymore.