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Sitaram · Site Admin Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 1079

(4-19-2001)

One reader, John, writes:

Dear Sitaram:

Thank you for responding to my question and I look forward to your more
comprehensive response.

One Hundred Humans Left in the World

http://www.sitaram.0catch.com/page139.htm

My reason for questioning the claim that 11 out of 100 people in the world
are homosexual is because several reputable polling organizations in the
U.S. during the 1990s have indicated that only 2-3 percent of the
population is homosexual.

Therefore, I was curious as to where your 11 percent figure came from. It
seems highly unlikely there are more homosexuals outside the U.S.,
especially with the largely successful campaign homosexuals have been
waging in the U.S. during the last 30 years to gain respectability.

So, I will be interested in the documented evidence you can produce to
justify this assertion.

Thank you,

=====================

Dear John,

Thanks for visiting my website, and posting at the message board.

Over the next several days,.... time permitting... I shall find those pages
in the website which pertain to sexuality in general, and homosexuality in
particular, and forward them to you....

I shall also endeavor to write some things in response to the question
regarding "100 people in the world" and the 11% figure cited therein.

Best Regards,
Sitaram

=========================

Dear John:

Thanks for replying so quickly....

First off, I want to be honest with you and explain that the webpage at my
site was composed by someone else. I found it, and included it at my site,
because for me it illustrated certain things about the world and humanity
in general (not simply regarding homosexuality).... which has a bearing
upon some of the themes of my website.

I did make sure to post the name of the Dr. who was the author of those
stats..... but it is simply a page that I found and used.....

Also... I will mention that I am heterosexual... but not homophobic..... so I
try to have a compassionate view towards gays/lesbians..... I myself am
in my second marriage (to a woman both times...ha ha)...... I mention
that because it is important for you to know where I am coming from....

But I am not homophobic.... and so you will see, when I do collect those
URLs from my website on sexuality..... that I try to be compassionate and
understanding to each person's sexual orientation and situation, with
regard to various religions and spirituality in general.....

In fact... if you bring up my "INDEX OF PAGES" and do a string search
(ctrl F) on "SEX" , and keep hitting REPEAT, you will locate the several
pages which talk about sexuality in general......

I also try to deal with the issue of heterosexuals who are very active and
promiscuous, with regard to the issue of being religious/spiritual.....

You have aroused my own curiousity about the actual percentages of
people in the world with homosexual orientation, so I will be doing some
searches with google.com to see what I can find....

But my own personal understanding of sexual orientation (either
heterosexual or homosexual) is that it is something which is deepseated
and primordial in each individual, and which manifests itself at a VERY
early age (often as early as five or six years old)......

I try to stress that one's sexual orientation is not a matter of free will
choice..... i.e. one does not wake up one morning and say "Hmm....
should I be gay or straight... let me see.... oh I think will be gay, because
it has more advantages, and some people have been providing me with
persuasive propaganda"..... No... no... this is not how sexuality
works............

Now WHAT ONE CHOOSES to do as far as ACTING OUT or acting upon
sexual drives..... YES... that IS a matter of free will choice..... and some
will choose to be very promiscuous and adventuresome, whether they are
gay or straight..... others will choose to be basically monogamous..... and
yet OTHERs will choose to be CELIBATE (although in their waking/sleeping
fantasy world, they will manifest their basic orientation..... obviously by
thinking about women or men in their fantasies).....

Yes, I will agree that a society which is more open and permissive
regarding gay lifestyles will result in a more VISIBLE population of
actively gay people..... but throughtout the centuries..... regardless of
culture or religious teachings or laws of society, the percentage of people
who are gay by nature will be roughly the same, though they will be
hidden and secretive in how they act out.....

I do know that there have been some valuable studies on PRIMATE
sexuality, among monkeys, chimpanzees, and apes..... and some of these
results correlate with human statistics.... since regardless of whether you
believe in evolution or whehter you are a creationist.... from a scientific
point of view.... humans are part of a larger class of PRIMATES.... and
mammalian primate behavior manifests a certain level of homosexual
behavior and a certain level of heterosexual behavior. One will even
observe dogs, for example, male dogs which try to mount other dogs.....
and one must honestly admit that this is a manifestion of mammalian
sexual orientation...Also,.... I am no scientist or expert, so I simply rely
upon the research of others....

Well... I touch-type, very quickly... and I have typed out this long
response to you literally off the "top of my head".... so please accept it for
what it is.... and it is not some scholarly, scientific dissertation.....

I shall be emailing you more of my thoughts and findings in the near future.....

Best regards,
Sitaram

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Dear John:

I would like to say some things off the top of my head, in a rambling,
discursive fashion.

I have written you a great deal here, and yet much more remains to be
said, to express all that is on my mind. But I feel it is better to send you
what I have now, and let you digest it, rather than let much time elapse
writing a more lengthy and complex response.

You will notice that your own paragraphs are interspersed in my reply and
highlighted *** in the following manner*** with asterisks.

I observe from your several emails that you are strongly preoccupied with
thoughts about homosexuals in society and about the private sexual
activities of others. I am concerned for you that such a preoccupation
may be spiritually damaging for you, and is also possibly theologically in
error, based on the spirit and intent of the Gospel message.

I would like to emphasize, and suggest several things to you, spiritually.
One basic theological principal, which is unfortunately often obscured and
forgotten in western Protestant practice, is that "THE JUDGMENT OF GOD
is a Mystery to man." This important principle is strongly stressed in
Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox (Greek and Russian) theology, but
somehow became lost in the Protestant Reformation. I mention this
principle of the Mystery of God's judgment regarding individual people to
emphasize the error of those who actively proclaim who will be saved and
who will be damned, on the basis of sin's committed or even on the basis
of dogmatic or doctrinal error or heresy of belief.

Both Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox theologians are careful to
state that ALTHOUGH ONLY CATHOLIC/ORTHODOX DOCTRINES ARE
SAVING or salvific,.... yet there is salvation outside the church, though
where and who and how is the mystery of God's judgment and grace.

The principle of the mystery of God's judgment is emphasized by such
verses as "I shall have mercy upon whom I will have mercy, and whom I
will I harden" and also the parable of the workers in the vineyard, who
worked only the 11th hour, and yet received the same penny wage as
those who labored from morning and through the heat of the day.

The other principle I want to emphasize is found in the parable of the
Publican and the Pharisee (and note well that we never say "The
PHARISEE and the publican", placing the Pharisee first). The Pharisee in
the temple prays "Oh Lord, I THANK Thee that THOU HAS MADE ME AS I
AM, fasting twice a week, and tithing, and not as that Publican over there."
Much of the sin and error of western Protestant theology is the error of
the Pharisee. The Publican simply hung his head,.... looked neither to the
right nor to the left, and said "Lord, have mercy upon me a sinner". The
PUBLICAN DOES NOT judge others. Does this mean that the publican
thinks that sexual sins are ok, or stealing or false witness or murder ARE
OK? Certainly not! But it is not our place to judge the sins of others.

That judgment is the provenance of God alone. Nor can we proclaim with
certainty "I am SAVED". One cannot know the status of one's salvation
until the Judgment, otherwise, what purpose would there be to having a
Judgment, if humans could know during their lifetime whether they are
saved. And if one could say "I am SAVED" then why would St. Paul say
"therefore WORK OUT YOUR SALVATION WITH FEAR AND TREMBLING" in
Philippians 2:12?

The bottom line of all this is that we should not be too busy looking into
the closets and bedrooms and bathrooms of everyone else for sin. This
does not mean that we should not formulate laws for society, and punish
wrongdoers. It means that we should JUDGE OURSELVES, and not others,
and also, have FAITH in the power of the saving grace of God.

St. John Climacus, of the 6th century wrote "We shall be able to recognize
the righteous at the Judgment. The Righteous will be those with their head
hung saying 'We have done nothing worthy'. "

And Jesus points out that "he who offends in ONE POINT of the law, is
guilty of the WHOLE LAW". This means that those who are guilty of the sin
of pride or envy are in some sense just as guilty as the homosexual.

Last year I read an interesting book on the New Testament by a devout
scholar, a Jesuit Roman Catholic priest (I cant remember his name). The
title of this book is "The Galilean". It is an attempt to bring to life in a vivid
manner the times of Christ. The author made a fascinating speculation. He
cited the story in the Gospels about the Roman Soldier who comes to
Christ to ask healing for his servant/orderly who is in bed, gravely ill. I
am recounting this passage from memory. Jesus makes some indication
that he will come to heal the sick man. The Soldier says, "Lord, I am
unworthy that you should come under the roof of my house. But I have
many under my command, and I say to this one "Go and do this" and he
performs my command, so Say but the word, and my servant shall be
healed". The author of the book speculates that homosexuality in the
Roman army was common, and that the servant of this particular
commander was actually his lover, and hence, the soldiers ardent desire
that the servant be healed, for in the Roman army, people in authority are
tough and stern, and human life is considered cheap, and it is considered
noble and brave to face death, and cowardly to try to escape it.
Obviously, no scholar can prove or disprove whether the sick servant was
in fact the lover of the soldier. But the observation and speculation is a
clever one. And the motive for a biblical scholar attempting to discern
such a fact is obviously a compassionate motive of trying to see Christ as
merciful and forgiving and compassionate potentially to every type of
sinner, whether a prostitute or a thief or even a homosexual. We see
Christ compassion to the thief on the cross saying "This day you shall be
with Me in paradise." We see Christ's compassion to the accused
adulteress, saying "Go and sin no more." We see God's mercy and
forgiveness to Saul on the road to Damascus, though Saul was present
and responsible for the slaying very first martyr, St. Stephen, deacon. So
God has mercy and compassion upon harlots and thieves and murderers,
and most likely homosexuals as well.

Now, when Christ forgives the thief on the cross, is He ENDORSING the
lifestyle of thieves? As St. Paul would say "Heaven forbid!". St. Paul says,
"should we say let sin abound that GRACE should more abound? Heaven
forbid!" Nor is Christ endorsing adultery when he forgives the adulteress,
nor is He endorsing murder when Saul receives his vision on the road to
Damascus and is converted.

It IS perfectly true that only Lot and his daughters were spared from the
destruction of Sodom and Gommoreah. Even Lot's wife perished, because
she "glanced back", perhaps yearning for the comforts of the old, familiar
life, and for that yearning, she was turned into a "pillar of salt". We can
see an analogous sentiment regarding "looking back" in the verse "He
who puts his hand to the plow and then looks back is not worthy of the
Kingdom." And yet later, in the wilderness, we see lot drunken with wine,
and impregnating both his daughters. So Lot himself, though spared, was
not necessarily the most righteous of men.

Such total destruction of Sodom fuels our notion that homosexuality is
more heinous that heterosexual sins, or theft, or murder, or even sins
which many people forget about such as pride, sloth, envy, and gossiping
backbiting. But people OFTEN FORGET about the prior intercession of
Abraham with God. It is ESSENTIAL for us to remember this episode of
Abraham's intercession on behalf of Sodom and to learn several essential
principles from it. First of all, it is very likely that the reputation of
Sodom's sin had spread far and wide (just as everyone knows about New
York City), so Abraham surely was ignorant of the nature of the people on
whose behalf he interceded. God initially agrees to spare the entire city if
FIFTY righteous men are found. Notice very carefully that God only asks
that they be RIGHTEOUS, and makes no mention of their religious
persuasion and denomination, or that they be Jewish. Indeed, there WAS
no Judaism in Abraham's time, since it was before the time of Moses and
the Laws. We all know that Abraham succeeds in reducing the
requirement from fifty righteous men to ten righteous men. Certainly, had
TEN RIGHTEOUS men actually been found, and had the cities of Sodom
and Gommoreah been spared, the gay life style would not have
disappeared from those cities. This indicates that there are circumstances
under which God is willing to have compassion towards homosexuals. Of
course, God is portrayed as "the only knower of hearts" in the Book of
Samuel, so one might say that God ALREADY KNEW that there were not
TEN righteous men to be found, and thus God was "stacking the deck" so
to speak and begging the question. Or was he? I personally like to think
that God is not into "cheap tricks" and stacking the deck. For as we read
in Ezekiel:

Ezekiel 3:20 Again, When a righteous man doth turn from his
righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumblingblock before
him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in
his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be
remembered; but his blood will I require at thine hand.

Ezekiel 18:21 But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath
committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right,
he shall surely live, he shall not die. All his transgressions that he hath
committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness
that he hath done he shall live.

We see that God is making allowance for the possibility that some people
might REPENT between the time of Abraham's intercession and the time of
the Judgment concerning Sodom's destruction.

But why would God allow a city of immorality like Sodom to be
PRESERVED if as many as 10 righteous men be found, but destroy the city
if only ONE righteous man might be found? These are difficult questions
to answer, but perhaps wherever there is a COMMUNITY or
CONGREGATION of RIGHTEOUS, however small, THEN there is hope that
others will repent and reform by fellowship and association.

Of course, God in his FOREKNOWLEDGE, from God's atemporal vantage
point of the pre-Eternal, can see as present the outcome of each person's
freewill decisions. Yet that foreknowledge in no way robs the individual of
his free will choice at the moment he makes it. Yet obviously, God also
must have foreknown that ten men would NOT repent and become
righteous. But still, God left open the possibility that it might happen,
indicating the POTENCY of man's free will choice and cooperation with the
Divine Will, and God's reluctance to suggest in scripture any sort of
election or predestination which would rob individuals of the potency of
their choice.

Another valuable lesson from the story of Abraham's intercession on
behalf of Sodom is that "THE WORLD IS SUSTAINED FROM MOMENT TO
MOMENT for the sake of the righteous few." One day, a woman asked me
with some concern what good work she might do to help the world. I
pointed out to her, that on the basis of this story of Sodom, she may
possibly PRESERVE THE VERY WORLD by her own personal sanctity and
devotion.

John, you wrote:

*****Before dashing off to work this morning, I downloaded my laptop's
Inbox and your letter of Sunday was among those which came in. As I
didn't have time to read it before leaving home, I sent it to the office and
have just finished doing so while having my deskside lunch.****

****That you would take the time to write a rather long response to my
query impresses me. You've obviously thought about the gay/lesbian
"revolution" which reputedly began in 1969 and has undoubtedly
exceeded the wildest dreams of the wildest among them in terms of the
exalted status in society they now enjoy*****

There have been many "revolutions" in the past three hundred years,
including the American and French Revolutions which paved the way for
"Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" in democratic republics.

The thrust of the revolutionary process of the past 300 years has been to
evolve democratic constitutional governments in which each individual has
rights and privileges based SOLELY on the fact that they are a human
being, and not upon privilege of birth or class, or skin color, or religious
affiliation. Such constitutional democracies seek not only the welfare of
the majority, but also seek to shelter various minorities from the potential
tyranny of the majority, and assure that they too have equal opportunity
to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness".

Homosexuality has been present in society since long before Sodom and
Gommoreah. The dialogues of Plato mention love affairs between same-
sex couples. Ancient vases have been found which graphically depict
every possible sexual act between males and females, and between same
sex partners. So we know that the broad spectrum and panorama of
human/primate/mammalian sexual activity is nothing new. And as I
mentioned in my previous email, we even observe analogous activity in
other mammalian species.

*****Who could have imagined they would be able to so maneuver and
manipulate public opinion so that for some years now, anyone who dares
to say homosexual genital behavior is unnatural, pathological, immoral
and disordered can find himself slapped with a lawsuit in short order?
Sometimes I get the impression that a large part of the public has been
cowed or bullied into accepting that this obsession with the genitals (for
that's what it boils down to) as just another way of doing sex. *******

I must disagree in regard to any notions that gays and lesbians "conspire
to manipulate public opinion" to proselytize more "converts" to
homosexual activity. You might find some odd organization, composed of
a minority of individuals who promulgate all sorts of bizarre and offensive
values, including things like pedophile (e.g. the "Man-Boy Love Society"),
but the existence of such groups does not mean that every gay or lesbian
subscribe to such views or endorses them. It is a fact that most serial
killers are white males who fit a certain profile, yet they are a small
minority of the population, and one cannot infer that all white males are
likely to be serial killers.

I would like to point out that the Old Testament has passages which
explicitly state that adulterers should be stoned, and "do not suffer a witch
to live". Modern societies have many many adulterers, as well as those
who openly profess to be witches. The old testament also enthusiastically
endorses corporal punishment of children. Are you willing to say that
children lobbied to twist and distort societies values so that the spiritually
beneficial practice of corporal punishment would be banned? Did
heterosexual adulterers conspire to eliminate the death sentence of
stoning, and make adultery or divorce more socially acceptable. Did the
"witches" lobby to stop the righteous practice of burning old women at the
stake?

In my lifetime, I have known and worked beside a number of gays and
lesbians. I have spoken at length privately with several gays and lesbians.
I asked them many detailed questions about their childhood, and when
they first suspected that they were gay, and about their adult lifestyles
and committed relationships. One finds a wide spectrum of behavior both
among heterosexuals and homosexuals. I have talked to heterosexual
female prostitutes, addicted to heroine or crack, who began their activities
as early as 13, and by age 20 had experienced over 300 different sexual
partners. I have met male homosexuals who compulsively visited bath
houses and were very promiscuous, and ultimately died of aids. On the
other hand, I have know heterosexuals, men and women, who for various
reasons waited until they were in their 30's to have their first sexual
experience (and then it was outside of marriage). I even knew an elderly
man who had a gay orientation, but who had never had sex in his life,
with anyone, but simply fantasized about it. I talked to one gay man in his
40's, who knew he was gay when he was 11 or twelve, but did not have
his first sexual experience until he was in his 20's. I asked him why he
waited so long. His reaction was almost like that of a shy woman. He said
he would not let ANYONE TOUCH him, until he was totally certain of his
feelings, and knew what he really wanted to do. My point in all this is that
one cannot stereotype people to a certain behavior. I have known gay
men who did not believe in being promiscuous, who had had only a few
partners in their entire lifetime, and remained in a committed relationship
for as long as 20 years. Those gays had NO INTEREST in trying to seduce
children, and found the notion of pedophilia repugnant. On the other hand,
there are heterosexuals who are very attracted by the opportunity for sex
with minors. One simply CANNOT STEREOTYPE and characterize peoples
morality or motives based on their sexual orientation, anymore than one
can stereotype upon the basis of gender, ethnicity, race, skin color or
religion. There are even ATHEISTS who are compulsively moral and
compassionate and charitable, and then there are people (including
pastors and clergy) who are compulsively religious, and yet addicted to
various sorts of immoral sexual behavior.

****But a big reason for that, as I see it, is because a large part of
society has lost sight of the true meaning of sex -- that it's not just the
"passage of fluids," no big thing or strictly a physical activity much like
sports is. But that same large segment of the population probably knows
nothing about the way homosexuals and lesbians do sex, which goes far
beyond oral/anal "sex" or even drinking each other's urine and eating
excrement, as you know. But of course that's all very "normal."*****

****Now, having said all that, I need to say I harbor no ill-will toward
homosexuals and lesbians and I have a compassion for them. But my
compassion for them does not include supporting and applauding them in
the way they live. In their view, anyone who disagrees with the
homosexual agenda "hates" them and has no compassion for them. In my
view the most compassionate stance toward homosexuals and lesbians is
to encourage and support any among them who desire to leave this
so-called lifestyle. I have contributed money to ministries who offer a way
out of this octopus called homosexuality.*******

*****In recent months, it has seemed to me that rather than calling
homosexuality "sexual addiction" (as I have seen it described), it would
be more accurate to call it "genital addiction." I'd be interested in your
reaction to that.*******

*****My view is that a person becomes a homosexual after the first few
homosexual involvements. It becomes an addiction quicker than any
other addiction, such as alcohol, drugs, smoking, etc. The idea that sexual
orientation is something deep-seated and primordial does not make
sense. It would only make sense if there was the kind of physical
complementarity there is between a man and a woman (a penis which fits
into a vagina, both of which stimulating the other in a highly pleasurable
and psychically exhilarating manner), with the birth of a child nine months
after conception a potential result. *******

******But there is none of this in homosexual or lesbian physical
encounters. They just indulge in sex for its own sake and for their
individual pleasure. It is nothing less than mutual masturbation. Even solo sex (masturbation) has nothing to commend, as you know. Homosexual
liaisons don't make sense because human beings aren't animals who do
their sexual thing on the basis of instinct. Human beings are on a higher
position on the ladder of life and have the power to control their sex urges
and drives in a way animals cannot. This capability is one of the ways
human beings are superior to animals. If so-called homosexual behavior
is observed in some animals, it is an insult to humankind to suggest that
justifies homosexual behavior in humans.******

*****You are indisputably correct in observing heterosexuals are "very
active and promiscuous." But that doesn't legitimize or even excuse
homosexual behavior, yet that seems to be the intent of such
arguments.*****

*****Please feel free to dispute anything I've written. My ideas on this
subject are by no means chiseled in stone and if you can show with
substantiated evidence that I'm off base, I'll be glad to amend my views
to conform with a more enlightened, realistic and scientifically correct
position.*****

***I shall check out your "Index of Pages," as you suggested (I hope I
haven't misplaced your webpage address). ***

MY WEBSITE URL

http://www.sitaram.0catch.com/webindex.htm

****Additionally I look forward to receiving the results of your searches
regarding the actual percentage of people in the world with a homosexual
orientation, if you were inclined to send them along. I'm unable to recall
off the top of my head the three or so independent studies made in the
1990s all indicating that two percent of the population is homosexual and
one percent lesbian. It seems to me the University of Chicago's National
Research Center was one.********

***Lunch hour is over so I must sign off. (What does SITARAM stand
for?)****

In answer to your question about my name, SITARAM: The "Ramayan" is
a sacred text in India, first set down in Sanskrit by Valmiki (I'm guessing
around 200 B.C.). It was rewritten in modern Hindi by Tulsidas around the
17th. Century. It is revered in India in much the same way as the
Gospels are by Christians. The message of the Ramayan is strikingly
similar in many ways to the message of Christianity. Ram is the name of
a king who is an avatar/incarnation of God as Vishnu, coming to earth and
taking bodily form (much like Christ), in order to restore righteousness
and combat evil. Sita is the wife of Ram, and is also seen as an
incarnation/avatar of an aspect of God in female form. Gandhi's favorite
hymn (bhajan) was "Raghupati Rhaghava Raja Ram, patite pavane Sita
Ram", which roughly translated says "Sita and Ram are the uplifters of the
downfallen". So there is a message of hope and salvation in the Ramayan
through the path of devotion, and God's active grace.

I shall write more later, time and energy permitting.

Best Regards,
Sitaram

SFG75 · Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2005 8:08 pm Post subject:

Sitaram-

This is one heck of a good exchange that you had with this gentleman. I
appreciate you sharing it with us. It's very exhilarating to read a good
discussion such as this one. Having read through the responses, I'll add a
few of my own thoughts.

-The good writer was correct in estimating that the worlds gay and lesbian
population is pretty low. The figures would be roughly 1-3% total. The
10% number comes from a Kinsey study, but that one had it's own flaws.
Snopes has an impressive write up about the "if there were 100 people
left on the earth" deal which you can view here.

[url]http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/populate.html [/url]

While not entirely accurate, it does give a person a fairly accurate picture
of what it would look like give or take a few numbers in between.

-In regards to ministries designed to counsel gays and lesbians, the APA
has come out very definitively against "gay conversion" therapy models.

[url]http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/resolution97.html [/url]

Their findings have led to the conclusion that such programs are risky and
ineffective. It is interesting to note that successes of this kind of therapy
are truly hard to assess. A good number of the "successful" conversion
therapy patients were really bi-sexuals mislabeled as homosexuals.
Getting such people to convert in this instance really isn't an
accomplishment.

Not only that, but studies claiming to have effectively documented
"succes" stories in regards to gay conversion, have often times been been
published in less than highly regarded journals and non-peer-reviewed
publications. Another problem with such studies is that a lot of the
"success" stories can only be documented with personal accounts and that
kind of thing, not exactly an empirical way to go about things. A good
write-up also from the APA highlights these points, among others, in
regards to the statistics of these:

[url]http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/facts_changing.html [/url]

programs and their dubious accomplishments.

-I agree that it is important for people irregardless of sexual orientation to
be judicious in regards to their sexual behavior. With that being said, I
don't believe that every pre-marital sexual encounter(whether gay or
straight) is automatically an emotionally harrowing experience. In fact,
such encounters can be very beneficial for the people involved. It is how
many in society navigate what they want out of a relationship and in
finding out what they want in a future partner. Abstinance is a good ideal,
but it is not the only ideal.

-The use of the term "homosexual agenda" is quite a loaded term
politically. It is interesting that when we are talking about groups that
lack basic rights, they are accused of wanting "extra" or "special" rights.
This kind of language is used to justify keeping certain groups in society
from enjoying the rights and opportunities that are not afforded to them.
Was there a "black agenda" for "special rights" when they marched for
voting rights and to end segregation? It is interesting as well that as gay
marriage is opposed now, so was interracial marriage in the U.S. some
forty odd years ago. The reasoning justifying such things is religious in
nature-we have interracial marriage in the U.S. now and our way of life
has not gone straight south in a handbasket. Neither will it end if gays are
allowed to marry.

_________________
To know how to suggest is the great art of teaching

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