Davidf and Severin,

Lovely posts.

Made me a little teary.

Your dignified sense of humanity is such a contrast to too many of the other posts here.

david f, Severin and Pynchme,
The trouble with what you say, is that you seem to ignore the demonstrable link between homosexual behaviour and AIDs.
The reason so many young MSM are contracting HIV/AIDs, syphillis, gonorrhoea, MRSA, hepatitis, etc is because their behaviour facilitates its transmission.
Promiscuous sex,
anonymous sex,
anal sex,
all increase the chances of contracting the above diseases
and also the chances of dying of AIDs.
When a homosexual man dies of AIDs
one feels sorry in the same manner as
when a smoker dies of lung cancer.
It's sad, but...

There's nothing "dignified" in pretending any different.

Dear Proxy,

Yes, AIDS can be spread by sexual activity as is syphilis and Gonorrhoea. Having fewer sexual partners per person inhibits the spread. Therefore one can support same sex marriage as a public health measure.

One can be moralistic and shocked at other people's sexual impulses when one doesn't have those impulses. Some people such as Reverend Haggard are moralistic and shocked when they do have those impulses.

I remember getting lectures on the horrible effects of sexual diseases (before AIDS) when I was in the army during WW2. One of our lecturers tried to turn us away from sex by telling us to think of her sitting on a toilet when we saw a pretty girl. Don't think it made any difference.

Smoking addiction is difficult to deal with. When it was considered fashionable to smoke I tried it. Could never get to like it.

However, my sexual drive is much more powerful than my impulse to smoke. Think it's the same for most people including homosexuals. Promiscuous sex spreads disease. Therefore make it easier for people in a sexual relationship to make a commitment and be less promiscuous.

david f,
Your "argument" carries its own rebuttal.
Reverend Haggard was married and it didn't stop him.
Furthermore, the homosexual concept of "marriage" does not
put the same emphasis on monogamy that normal marriage does.
Yours is a very superficial argument indeed.

Anybody who's in Brisbane this weekend and wants to show solidarity with their gay brothers and sisters might like to take part in this year's Pride Festival, kicks off at 10am Saturday at the Roma St Forum.

http://www.pridebrisbane.org.au/

The theme this year is "Love Our Way", which sounds a whole lot better than hate of any description.

proxy,
Your "argument" carries its own rebuttal.
Reverend Haggard was in a hetrosexual marriage and it didn't stop him.

That game can be played at infinitum.
The value of fidelity varies from individual to individual. What is clear is that trying to force people to be what they are not (trying to make gay's straight for instance) harms all involved. What most of us see of the "gay lifestyle" is what attracts the media's attention. Unless we have homosexual friends we see very little of the normal relationship stuff that does not get the media's attention.

We also see homosexuals's who have grown up in a culture which all to often has condemned people for being different, it would not be surprising if some responded with an up your's to societies conventions.

Some of the excesses of parts of gay culture will probably fade away over time, accepting differences is a good start on that. Attacking homosexuals for their orientation (and their subsequent refusal to follow your morals) is hardly a helpful path to getting them to see the value of other conventional morals.

R0bert