Do people have a right to be offended by Gays?

[Principessa]

Homosexuality is nether a lifestyle nor a choice.

I know that, but I am amazed by just how many people still don't get that. :frown1:

I take care of my kids, have an occasional beer, watch sports, cut my lawn, pay my taxes and go to work everyday. I guess that is the homosexual lifestyle, then.

OMG, you cut your lawn?!?! Are you one of those people that mows the lawn at 7 AM Sunday morning when the rest of the world is sleeping? I am seriously offended by people who do that. :12: We had a neighbor in NJ who used to do that until his neighbor on the otherside set him straight.

The whole lifestyle argument is grounded upon the basis that people have control over orientation and they do not.

Ok I need to explain this better:

I simply meant to ask do people in a free society have a right to be offended by gays?

I suppose so, but they don't have a right to discriminate against gays in jobs, housing, health care, auto buying, voting, marriage, education, etc.

 

[PussyWellington]

But how do we know someone is gay? Is there a uniform? A secret handshake?

Why is it even an issue? You are people first, right?

I also believe that if I want to rent my house, sell my car etc, then I have the right to sell it to whomever I want -- it's my house, it's my job. If I don't like people with red hair, then it is my choice not to sell it to people with red hair or to fundamental christians.

It's my choice. I don't need legislation to tell me what to do! We are all discriminated against at some point in our lives.

 

[zumzum]

>Do people have a right to be seriously offended by the homosexual lifestyle?

The question doesn't seem well formed to me because it doesn't make sense to be offended by the homosexual lifestyle - provided you really can define this lifestyle since the stereotypes are wrong: I'm gay and I don't like the historically glamorous aspect of gay pride such as transvestites, feathers transexuals, etc, if you called it "transvestite pride" if would be fine for me, but you can't call it gay pride, I don't share anything with that.

so I wonder what you meant with your question

to get offended by two guys kissing in public?

I'm still trying to understand this thing in London (if it ever could be understood) it seems that the answer is

"YES, YOU CAN GET OFFENDED, GET OVER IT"

it seems that everyone living in a multiethnic and multicultural society will be offended and will offend someone else, so just get over it and go on with what you were doing, unless someone did something against the law of course (sexual harassment, indecent exposure, etc)

it's not that bad

here in England sex in public places is discipline by law, in several circumstances is legal, gay or straight whatever

 

[zumzum]

"if gay guys pester straight guys then that's annoying"

Agreed and don't worry, some gay guys pester gay guys too and that's very annoying!

This is a think in the gay """culture""" (theoretically speaking because.....) that still have to be fixed, along with other stuff.

 

[B_VinylBoy]

But how do we know someone is gay? Is there a uniform? A secret handshake?

The dick in their mouth could be your first clue. But I digress... :biggrin1:

I also believe that if I want to rent my house, sell my car etc, then I have the right to sell it to whomever I want -- it's my house, it's my job. If I don't like people with red hair, then it is my choice not to sell it to people with red hair or to fundamental christians.

That's true. Do what you want with your own goods and services that you pay for. But since many other companies and services in America are paid for through federal funding (which includes taxes that are paid by gay & lesbian men & women), they should be representing their views as well. It's taxation without representation... with a twist.

It's my choice. I don't need legislation to tell me what to do! We are all discriminated against at some point in our lives.

That's true. But without any legislation for Women's Equal Rights you'd be in the same position of a gay man. Forced to pay for taxes and not given all of the rights and benefits a free, heterosexual male is entitled to. How would you feel if you were denied the right to marry by federal law because you love someone THEY don't approve of? How worthless would you feel if the government decided to ignore the last will & testament of your loved one all because THEY didn't approve of who you lived with, forcing all of his or her assets to go to complete strangers and leaving you with nothing? It's hard for a heterosexual male or woman to sympathize with this for just about everything on this planet is geared towards the straight community. But imagine if the shoes were on the other foot and homosexuality was the way of life, and those who loved the opposite sex were the condemned by the Religious Right?

DC_DEEP worded it best. ANYONE has a RIGHT to be OFFENDED by whatever he CHOOSES to be offended about. But NO ONE has the RIGHT to an OFFENSE-FREE existence. That is, unless you want to stay in your own world, away from the rest, so you can have that freedom to make your own rules... as in the case of your home that you won't sell to redheads.

 

[B_The Greek Dude]

I simply meant to ask do people in a free society have a right to be offended by gays?

Yes.

 

[arkfarmbear]

I think Swordfish's question is simply a smoke screen for "do people have a right to be offended AND consider homosexuals as less valuable to society"? This then goes on to reason that if it is okay, then it is okay to use one's votes, money, political power, etc, to treat gays differently than straight people.
The fact that Swordfish posed the question to begin with does, in my opinion, reflect his inner feelings and attempts to have them validated by the "majority" on this site.

 

[earllogjam]

I find dill pickles disgusting. They offend me. That green brine, the horrible smell, and that awful half-soft texture. I'll take my cucumbers straight, thank you, like all normal, right-thinking people.

OK, I don't care if people eat pickles in the privacy of their own home. What they get up to behind closed doors is none of my business.

But I don't want pickle eaters to ram their filthy. disgusting habit down my throat. I don't want them to talk about it, much less do it in public. I went to a picnic the other day, and someone had put a WHOLE JAR of pickles on the table. Outrageous! Do we want our children to see that? They might get the idea that pickles are a perfectly normal and acceptable way to eat a cucumber.

You can imagine my shock when I discovered that McDonalds puts pickles on a Big Mac! There they go, pandering to the pickle-eater lifestyle.

And don't get me started on pretzels...

I LOVE dill pickles.

You obviously are a bigot if you hate dill pickles. You know having a craving for a dill pickle is NOT a choice. It just happens. I've been like this since grade school. It is just a part of me.

I am sick to death of people like you taking away my freedoms. I happen to like dill pickles on Big Macs. Who are you to judge what should and shouldn't be on hamburgers? You obviously don't know many pickle eaters. Did you CHOOSE not to like pickles, of course not.

Now sweet pickles....that's another story. Yuck.

 

[Phil Ayesho]

People have a right to be offended by whatever they please.

Its called freedom of thought.


However... where they make a mistake is in feeling they have some right to NOT be offended.

You can take things anyway you please....
but when you start making demands that OTHERS must stop doing what you don't like...
That is the end of freedom.
That is the genesis of fascism, of holocaust, or book burning, inquisitions...

and the patriot act.

 

[headbang8]

I LOVE dill pickles.

You obviously are a bigot if you hate dill pickles. You know having a craving for a dill pickle is NOT a choice. It just happens. I've been like this since grade school. It is just a part of me.

I am sick to death of people like you taking away my freedoms. I happen to like dill pickles on Big Macs. Who are you to judge what should and shouldn't be on hamburgers? You obviously don't know many pickle eaters. Did you CHOOSE not to like pickles, of course not.

Now sweet pickles....that's another story. Yuck.

Look, Earl. You seem like a perfectly nice guy. I wouldn't have picked you as a pickle-eater on the street. I mean, you're not obvious or flamboyant about it. I got nothing against that.

But don't go telling me that your un-natural way of eating a cucumber deserves the same respect and legal protection as mine. Pickles protected by the same hygiene laws and sales-tax breaks as real food? Never!

That's why I wrote to my congressman to support the Defense of Salads Act. The way I see it, my cucumber is a temple, and I don't think it should be put in places where...well, un-natural places. Like between buns.

You said it yourself. Dill pickles are the thin end of the lettuce wedge. Pretty soon we'll be condoning sweet pickles, chutneys and onion jam. Where will it end? Worcestershire sauce? None of us want to see that!

 

[ZOS23xy]

With all of the "progress" made recently towards social equality for gay people I had a question come to mind: Do people have a right to be seriously offended by the homosexual lifestyle?

There is a serious argument to be made for this. If there is to be freedom of choice, then people have every right to be offended and detest the homosexual lifestyle.

I want to know everyone's thoughts on this.

I'm offended by the Nascar lifestyle. But I tend to be polite and keep it to myself. I think it is seriously retarded.

 

[B_Think_Kink]

Ok I need to explain this better:

I simply meant to ask do people in a free society have a right to be offended by gays?

Yeah I guess so, but then we get to be offended by "straight lifestyles".

 

[D_Jurgen Klitgaard]

I have the right to be offended by anything I find offensive. Whether the offender is gay, straight, blue, or green, doesn't make a bit of difference to me.

I find some things gays do to be offensive, I find some things straights do to be offensive. I find a lot of things on here offensive too. But that doesn't mean that everyone that is a member of that lifestyle is automatically on my shit list. Like Phil said before me, everyone has a right to be offended by whatever they please.

 

[Pendlum]

...But imagine if the shoes were on the other foot and homosexuality was the way of life, and those who loved the opposite sex were the condemned by the Religious Right?

DC_DEEP worded it best. ANYONE has a RIGHT to be OFFENDED by whatever he CHOOSES to be offended about. But NO ONE has the RIGHT to an OFFENSE-FREE existence. That is, unless you want to stay in your own world, away from the rest, so you can have that freedom to make your own rules... as in the case of your home that you won't sell to redheads.

I'd think the species would be dangerously thin if the shoe was on the other foot. But I do agree that DC_Deep put it perfectly.

Also, I love the pickle banter. For the record, I pro-dill pickles, but I'll never understand sweet pickles.

 

[Kevbo]

It seems like we're converging on the question of what the Social Contract should be for a society that has some mix of hetero- and homosexuality in it. In the U.S., if a hetero couple are about to part, a light kiss is completely within the norm in most places and pretty much unremarkable unless it turns into a spit-swapping session :smile:. However, a homosexual couple that also perform the light kiss may encounter a chilly reception (if not worse) in many places in the U.S.. I think the reason for this is that, in the abstract, most hetero people don't really think about the physical aspects of homosexual relationships -- out of sight, out of mind. But even a kiss, if same-sex and obviously one between lovers, is enough of a jarring sight to remind some otherwise uncaring heteros what goes on behind closed doors. And contemplation of that act is uncomfortable for many hetero folks, especially right-leaning ones.

I don't know that there is a solution to this that makes everyone happy. There certainly has been an effort to make same-sex contact more normative through depictions on increasing numbers of cable outlets and network shows. Potentially, that could, well down the road, make right-leaning heteros less, er, squeamish about seeing same-sex contact in public. But I think it will be difficult to tell for some time whether that will work to any dominating point in the society we have.

I know this can go both ways -- that some gays find hetero "breeder" contact hard to stomach. But I'm firmly convinced it is much more weighted the other way, merely by the dint of pure numbers. Whether the squeamish reaction is primal or learned is probably hotly debated in some circles.

Kevbo

 

[SandraSmithCarver]

Homosexuality is nether a lifestyle nor a choice.
I know that, but I am amazed by just how many people still don't get that. :frown1:
Quote:


its the same people that refer to bi-racial children as a "breed"

 

[SandraSmithCarver]

With all of the "progress" made recently towards social equality for gay people I had a question come to mind: Do people have a right to be seriously offended by the homosexual lifestyle?

There is a serious argument to be made for this. If there is to be freedom of choice, then people have every right to be offended and detest the homosexual lifestyle.

I want to know everyone's thoughts on this.

No, I dont think they have a right to be offended, if a couple is having sex in public, then they can be offended, gay or straight, its no ones business what people do in private.

 

[naughty]

Homosexuality is nether a lifestyle nor a choice.
I know that, but I am amazed by just how many people still don't get that. :frown1:
Quote:


its the same people that refer to bi-racial children as a "breed"

A "breed?" What on earth? As in Poodle vs Brussels Griffin?

 

[B_The Greek Dude]

A "breed?" What on earth? As in Poodle vs Brussels Griffin?

Bigoted people call a person who is half-black and half-white a "half-breed."

 

[HyperHulk]

With all of the "progress" made recently towards social equality for gay people I had a question come to mind: Do people have a right to be seriously offended by the homosexual lifestyle?

There is a serious argument to be made for this. If there is to be freedom of choice, then people have every right to be offended and detest the homosexual lifestyle.

I want to know everyone's thoughts on this.

People have the right to be willfully ignorant, lazy and cruel. The question is where does that get anyone? Logically there is nothing inherently offensive about gays. People are born gay and if you're religious and you believe God is omnipotent and omniscient, then God would have had to intentionally created gay people. Otherwise you're saying God made a mistake. From a sociological perspective, gays do nothing to adversely affect society. Gays are not responsible for the majority of rapes, murders thefts or any other socially destructive acts. The only acts that gays do that is vastly different than their straight counterparts are sexual acts, which generally are between consenting adults in the privacy of their own homes. How can anyone be offended by what someone else does in their own home?

There is virtually nothing about gay life that impacts straight people, so I can't understand how straight people could ever be offended by the existence of gays. If you are not interested in the lives of gays, then don't be a part of their lives.