The Gay Debate
"I hope the state will back our marriage... If they don't, it will send a message that we don't mean anything." Carly Foster, a gay man who married Caprice Fowler on Feb. 15 in San Francisco.
"They're destroying the moral fiber of our country" Almost every stereotype about a minority group makes that group out to be a source of dangerous weakness in society. Some infamous epithets from past racial and ethnic stereotypes are "degenerating," "lazy and dishonest," "drunken," "volatile and passionate." These all mean "no socially beneficial self control." If weak people gain influence, clearly all of society will be weakened: it will lose its fiber of toughness. Such ideas don't reflect a balanced view of reality, but rather reflect the nature of the stereotype-making process, which is based on fear of differences which are not understood. The anti-gay stereotype naturally picks on sex as the source of moral weakness.
Gynephilia-androphilia-heterosexual-homosexual ori...
English: This is the official seal of the National...
English: Venn diagram depicting the relationships ...Individual cases of destructive behavior can always be found to "prove" any of these stereotypes.
"They want to influence children and other people to become homosexual" Many persons opposed to the lesbian/gay community do not understand the engrained nature of sexual orientation. Yet most people, if they reflect about their own situation, realize that they have little or no influence on the nature of their own sexual orientation. They cannot have a successful life-long loving relationship with just anyone. There are two sources of confusion on this issue. One is that some people are bisexual and can choose between elements of their engrained sexual orientation. The other is that under special circumstances, such as prison, some people can develop a secondary interest in sexual acts that are fundamentally out of character for them. These acts are usually exploitative or predatory in nature. These are the acts...