Peterson,

You have the morals of sewer rat. I thought homosexual pedophillia was a pre requisite for christian priests?

With 15000 children abused in Ireland alone (according to the news this morning) christianity is all about "do what I say, not what I do."

Ngarmada
If you are claiming to be the paragon of integrity then you might rethink this statement:

"Like a selfish brat you cant get what you want on demand from the Rudd Govt, so you are either prepared to entertain negotiation with Abbott, or your political proclivity is toward his aberrant ideology."

Where have I said I am prepared to entertain negotiation with Abbott? You are attempting to muck rake when there is no muck to rake. Grasping at straws as your argument continues to sink further into the mire.

I have said numerous times on OLO that I am a Greens voter with ALP preference and would never vote for the Coalition (although I might rethink that if I was a NSW resident). In my last post on this thread I openly said I am not voting for Abbott. Do you need a neon sign?!

And you know very well I do not share Abbott's insecurities on homosexuality.

No ambiguity at all except in your own mind to suit your own agenda.

And...last I heard by 'selfish brat' you really mean a citizen of a democratic nation with the right to vote.

As for RObert, he is one of the most fair minded and logical thinkers on this forum (among many others) and does not deserve your attempts to twist another's words in an effort to dig yourself out of the hole you are continuging to dig for yourself.

RObert
I am not sure why I am wasting breath (or typing fingers) on this poster. Like hitting one's head on a brick wall.

Well said Pelican - and I'm very grateful I don't live in NSW either, so I can continue to vote Greens with (unfortunately) ALP preferences.

I loathe Abbott's politics, while I agree with R0bert that people can and do change - having done so myself. I really don't think Abbott has strayed very far from his conservative Catholic roots. I would love to ask him what his views are on RU486 - has he done a 180 on this as well? He is about as honest and forthcoming as John Howard.

Why would anyone be threatened by gays? When a lesbian has hit on me I just let them know, politely that I am not interested, just as I do when men hit on me - most times both lesbians and men have taken my rejection well, except in a couple of cases where the people were very, very drunk - some people, irrespective of their sexual-orientation as just plain difficult. I am sure that Abbott - mature man that he is could handle a pass from another man. Unless he is conflicted, I don't see what he has to be threatened by at all.

woulfe, I am confident the majority of my ethnic migrant community would acknowledge and concur with your comment.

Pelican, I concur with your comment of breath wasting. For as woulfe articulates, the issue is the meaning and implication of the Abbott comment, not the shallow and trite notions of depth of human understanding purported by yourself and RObert, that distract from the issue the author of the article is addressing. It is this issue that demonstrates your pretensions to being paragons of virtue.

Peterson, synonomous of such benchmark you distort, children born with autism may be open to suspicion as potential deviants. That many brilliant individuals are recognised as suffering autism, there now exists reconsideration of its definition as a malady. Similarly, noone stones to death lepers anymore, however it seems reforming bigots alike you, is still a work in progress.

I would hazard to guess, you still covet your first sexual experience, where it was dark and you were alone. However, according to the notions of the two posters I refer to in a former paragraph, there may be hope for you. Tried frontier psychiatry?

Severin, I wonder how much having spent time in institutional single sex living arrangements has to do with it. I went to boarding school as a teenager and I think that played a significant role in where I was at on the issue (along with previously held religious views on the issue). In the case of the boarding school shower blocks were communal, there were no private spaces to get changed etc. I recall cadet camp's where the toilets were in a large shared room rather than cubicles.

Not a lot of open gays in that environment but enough that the idea of sharing those types of spaces with someone who might enjoy a perve was not something most were happy about. In hindsight the concerns were overstated and I feel very sorry for any gay's who were forced into such a homophobic environment.

On the issue of Abbott's comments being used by homophobes to justify attacks on homosexuals, possibly but I think that's a long bow. I suspect that overtly camp or seedy portrayal's of male homosexuality have a far greater role to play in that. I think that it's changed in recent years but for a while the primary portrayals I'd seen of what it meant to be a gay male seemed to be mostly very camp or behavior that the straight equivalent of would be classed as fetish. If you already have a negative view of homosexuals that stuff is really fuel for the fire.

I know when I first started on OLO there was a poster named David who had a significant impact on my understanding of male homosexuals. He came across as a fairly normal guy in a long term relationship. His apparent honesty and basic decency gave cause to reevaluate some long term perceptions. There was more to it than just that but his posts were important.

R0bert

Severin
I don't know what Abbott has to feel threatened about either. Thanks for your comments.

Some are too quick to talk about homosexuality as though the state of being gay is somehow undeserving of the usually accepted human rights. The fact is some people are homosexual and should be treated equally within the gamut of all the wonderful diversity of human beings.