The Long Sleep is Over


      Hello and welcome, I could fill volumes and not fully address the subject (is that a cliché?); I can barely hope to give you my opinion; I intend to wake you up. These are some things I've heard about homosexuals and homosexuality and my reaction to it all (yes, I know that's a cliché). I will give you reasonable warning now, this is what I believe, in full honesty, I will not swear, I will be blunt (possibly painfully so), I will go in my own direction because, as Dr. Seuss said, "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who don't matter mind, and those who matter don't mind." If you're still reading this then you are a stubborn person or someone I know...either way, thank-you…and don't ground me::bow::

      Before I continue, let me explain that I define a person's gender as the gender that she/he presents to the world, not a person's chromosomal or legally registered gender; therefore, a double FTM (female to male), a double MTF (male to female), a FTM-male, or a MTF-female relationship is a same-gender relationship. People who don't fall (I say "fall" not "fit" because no one actually fits any label; even the ones on the backs of their shirts) into one category or other neatly are in different-gender relationships unless they are with someone who is very much like them selves. For good arguments on the former, I recommend reading Why You Should Give a Damn About Gay Marriage by Davina Kotulski, Ph.D. (especially pages 167-170).

      The demeanor of my opponents in this fight against segregation, oppression, and persecution, ranges from unfriendly to mean. Saying such things as:
"Marriage is NOT About Love," (Ross). If marriage has nothing to do with love (as well as or to be replaced with, love has nothing to do with marriage) then why are you, the people, making this a non-secular issue?
"It's not normal," normal is a setting on washing machines (and who wants to be a washing machine?)
"God condemns homosexuals," if God had a problem with homosexuality it wouldn't exist in the first place -- if homosexuality is a sin, then so are wearing blended fabrics (like polyester-rayon shirts), shaving, cutting ones hair, working on the Sabbath (apparently the world is supposed to come to a complete standstill), and eating dairy and meet off the same set of tableware (or at the same meal).
"Marriage is for having children," is that so; then what about all the heterosexuals that declare they never want children, or people who are infertile?
"It's disgusting!" Why should it matter if you, the few, find homosexuality disgusting, the taste of licorice disgusts me, but that doesn't allow me to prevent others from eating it, right?

      Prejudiced views like these are what created the problem in the first place. Same-gender marriages do not endanger (or threaten) children, the sanctity or the values of marriage, the economy, the structure of society, religion, U.S. culture, or the availability of a spouse. Homosexuality is not a choice, an abomination, a perversion, immoral, unnatural, a kink (though that would be one of the less derogatory\demeaning views), the result of a distorted self-image, "wrong" (no, I didn't say it was right - it's not left either), nor is it to blame for the high divorce rate. Homosexuals are no more likely to molest, abuse, neglect, or murder children than heterosexuals. These are not valid reasons to illegalize same-gender marriages (actually, they are neither valid nor reasons). Also, don't call something immoral, or amoral, unless and until you can give others a clear definition of both morals and morality (but at least one of them).

      How about a little "kindergarten-logic" (as clichéd and self-contradictory as that phrase sounds); when I was five and heard about the Gay Marriage Ban I thought, "That's not fair!"; a decade and a half later it doesn't seem any fairer -- and it irritates me that I am expected to think this kind of treatment is fair, or right, just because I'm older. To force persons in a homosexual relationship to settle for a "Civil-Union," a "Domestic Partnership," a "Contract of Reciprocal Beneficiaries," or a "Commitment Ceremony" is unfair, unequal, demeaning, debasing, insulting, and mean! If they want to give themselves yet another obligation, why should you deny them that right?
      In addition to violating the full faith and credit clause of the Constitution,
      the Defense of Marriage Act violates the Equal Protection Clause,
      which guarantees equal protection under the law to all Americans.
      However, it will likely stand until a ruling from the Supreme Court
      addresses these issues. (Sember 76)
It should also be invalid because the government is not authorized to make laws regarding marriage. What kind of message are we trying to send the world? That we're closed-minded, that we wish to be stuck in a past we were never part of, that we're willing to make bigots of ourselves for the sake of a book, that we're foolish enough to oppress others, or all of these things (yet again)? Outlawing homosexuality suggests that we, the U.S. people, revel in such things. Yes, you read that correctly, the government has done all but pass a blanket law. Why is religion allowed to interfere with what should be a wholly secular issue? Why are the opinions of a few, long dead, closed-minded men taken for absolute law; what some pseudo-historical novelization says is just that.

      The Religious Right (they should call them selves the Religious Wrong) is setting homosexuals up for low self-esteem by referring to them as:
"Partners" in stead of lovers, girlfriends, boyfriends, wives, husbands (even spouses is closer to fair).
"Homos" homo- means same so calling people homo based on their sexual orientation is inaccurate and hopelessly vague, at the least (something to ponder: humans are called homo sapiens).
"Fruits" fruit one who behaves in a fruity manner; FRUITY sweet; emotional; bubbly; crazy; silly; over the top (fruity) <fruity like a fine wine>.
"Dykes" the word dyke is derived from the word dike an artificial watercourse: ditch; a bank usually of earth constructed to control or confine water (read: a device for water retention): levee; a barrier preventing passage especially of something undesirable; a raised causeway; a tabular body of igneous rock that has been injected while molten into a fissure (dyke; dike).
"Sodomites" they are not from Sodom (which never existed) and some strait guys like getting it up the butt.
"Lesbians" a Lesbian is a resident of Lesbos (see, it's a place not a plural), a large Greek island, near Turkey, in the Aegean Sea; and men live there too (Lesbos).
"Gays" gay means happy, carefree, or lighthearted.
"Queers" queer can mean anything from curious, peculiar, unexplainable, or unconventional to mildly insane, touched (in the head), bizarre, strange, or suspicious (queer).
"Fags" fag can mean a cigarette; a bundle of sticks; to work hard: TOIL; to tire by strenuous activity: EXHAUST <fagged by the strenuous climb>; synonym see TIRE; Etymology: probably short for faggot: an English public-school boy who acts as servant to an older schoolmate; Function: intransitive verb: to serve as a fag especially in an English public school <fagging for older boys during his first year> (M-W; Wikipedia, fag).
Unfortunately, the homosexual community is also using these terms, bringing down its members and giving validation to these untrue, unfair, and mean labels.

      Marriage is for raising children, but that doesn't cover the elderly couples seeking marriages.

      To finish, "Labels are for soup cans" (my [yes women interest me] friend Dan). "Foolish difference is the hobgoblin of small, closed, simple non-minds" (as typed, this one is mine). "… Love and marriage … go together like a horse and carriage … can't have one without the other …" -Frank Sinatra. This is a legal contract not a religious issue. "Once you're married, it's all the same sex" (many married women and men). "They should have to suffer like the rest of us" (every guy with a Vegas act). "Love is love and gender matters not." "Homophobia is GAY," (my friend from California, Chelsea). "God does not despise anything that God has created" - John J. McNeill (qtd. in "Queer Quotes"). "Does it really matter what these affectionate people do, so long as they don't do it in the street and frighten the horses?" - Mrs. Patrick Campbell (qtd. in The Darwin Awards Four 103) I'm not preventing you from eating licorice, haggis, beef brains, Head Cheese, kidneys, liver, or tongue; getting full-body tattoos, shaving your head; or being with other people that eat these things; so don't prevent me from marring my girlfriend! Are you awake now?





Bibliograghy


Ross, Bradley. "Marriage is NOT About Love." PonderIt.
      © 2006 Ross, Bradley; PonderIt; LavaLane. 15 Oct. 2006
      <http://www.lavalane.org/ponderit/2006/03/marriage-is-not-about-love.html>.

"Fag." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Merriam-Webster OnLine.
      © 2006 Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. 29 Nov. 2006
      <http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/fag>.

"Fag." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
      © 1 October 2006 Wikipedia®. 20 Nov. 2006
      <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fag>.

"Dike." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Merriam-Webster OnLine.
      © 2006 Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. 20 Nov. 2006
      <http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/dike>.

"Dyke." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Merriam-Webster OnLine.
      © 2006 Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. 20 Nov. 2006
      <http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/dyke>.

"Fruity." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Merriam-Webster OnLine.
      © 2006 Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. 20 Nov. 2006
      <http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/fruity>.

"Lesbos" Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
      © 1 October 2006 Wikipedia®. 30 Nov. 2006
      <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesbos>.

"Queer." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Merriam-Webster OnLine.
      © 2006 Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. 20 Nov. 2006
      <http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/queer>.

Kotulski, Davina, Ph.D. Why You Should Give a Damn About Gay Marriage. California:
      Advocate Books, © 2004.

Northcutt, Wendy, with Christopher M. Kelly. The Darwin Awards 4: Intelligent Design.
      New York: Dutton, 2006

Sember, Brette McWhorter, Attorney at Law. Gay & Lesbian Rights: a Guide for GLBT
      Singles, Couples and Families. Naperville: Sphinx® Publishing, an Imprint of
      Sourcebooks Inc. ®, 2003, 2006

Theophano, Teresa. Queer Quotes: On Coming out, Love and Lust, Politics and Pride,
      and Much More. Boston: Beacon Press, Teresa Theophano © 2004.