As many of my friends will tell you, I'm a history junkie of epic proportions. Old Victorian house with a leaky roof? I'm there. Ruts of an old wagon trail out in the middle of a pasture? All over it. Eight-hundred-page biography of Napoleon Bonaparte? Can't put it down.
Thus, I had to laugh when a most interesting historical comparison was made in response to my previous and follow-up posts concerning James Dobson's numerous and....um, interesting....conclusions about gays.
But you're singing Dobson's song for him, so clearly, you buy into his whole line of bullshit. THe idea that GLBT groups aren't doing enough to combat NAMBLA, when none of us has any real contact with that group is something Dobson's cronies cooked up, and you swallowed.
Dobson will call you a pedophile no matter what. The idea that you think you can appease him is Neville Chamberlainesque.
For those following at home, Neville Chamberlain was the British Prime Minister who was infamous for his attempts to appease Adolf Hitler and avoid war by acquiescing to Hitler's annexation of Austria and the Czech Sudetenland, an action that ultimately emboldened Hitler and led him to believe that he need no longer concern himself with British opposition -- and hence, the Second World War.
This comment was backed up by yet another along the same lines.
The only thing you'll make clear is that you'll try any ploy to curry favor with a group of people who will ALWAYS detest you no matter what you do or say short of you putting a bullet through your head.
Of course, all this came about because I dared to publicly speak two things; one, that gays should regularly speak out against NAMBLA, child molestation, and pedophilia, and two, that gays could make a strong statement to that effect by advocating that the age of consent laws be raised and the punishments given to sex offenders be increased.
Really, I'm laughing even harder at this point. For me to believe that anything I do would ever satisfy Dobson would be an act of optimism akin to Paris Hilton writing an Emmy acceptance speech. It ain't gonna happen, folks, and I know that.
However, Dobson isn't who concerns me at this point. Who DOES concern me are the people out there whose feelings are best summed up by new Blog Ally Mom of Army of Mom (emphasis mine):
I tend to think that homosexuality and bisexuality do run in families. I know too many people in which there are several members of the family either openly or closeted who are one or the other. Seems like there has to be a gene for it. And, I used to think that molestation led to some people having gay tendencies, too, because I know so many men and women who were molested as youth and were gay or bi. *shrug* Don't know if it might play some role or if it is just an unfortunate coincidence.
Mom's an intelligent, articulate person, not a homohater by any means. However, what she used to believe is identical to what Dobson says -- molestation as a child makes you gay. Dobson and his ilk use that fact to lead the people down the primrose path -- gays don't condemn pedophilia, gays want to lower the age of consent -- and gently push them to draw the obvious conclusion, that gays want to molest children and produce more gays. Since Dobson defines molestation in very general terms ("sexualization", which can include dirty pictures on TV), he has a broad range of "evidence" to bring forward of how gays are after your children.
What the gay community has failed spectacularly in doing is reaching out to the Moms of this world. If you read her blog, you realize quickly that she is wise, peaceful, and compassionate, but the person foolish enough to threaten her children will find out that Mother Theresa is packing heat under her habit. We have let Dobson play to the two biggest fears of parents -- one, that their children will be harmed, and two, that they didn't do enough to prevent their children from being harmed -- because of this attitude that speaking out is "appeasement" and "trying to curry favor", as if saying underage minors shouldn't be having sex and that gays don't support pedophilia is akin to allowing Hitler to rape two European countries. Worse yet, we keep making inane statements in favor of taking away rights from parents, such as how gays need to oppose on the basis of "gay rights" parental notification laws that put abortion at the same required level of consent as ear-piercing or going to the school nurse for a Tylenol -- then act surprised when parents, the vast majority of whom SUPPORT parental notification, are suspicious of our motives.
In my humble opinion, the gay community will never advance until we realize a simple truth; the fact that Dobson and his ilk oppose something doesn't make it right, and the fact that they support something doesn't make it wrong. Furthermore, we have to realize that our agreeing with Dobson on one issue doesn't mean we agree on all of them.
In the meantime, though, I'll continue to pray that the religious right remains blind to a simple and expedient way to eliminate most gays......tell them that Falwell and Dobson both oppose gays drinking drain cleaner.
Then again, think of what I'm missing....Joe Solmonese standing up and tippling a tall glass on TV, Barney Frank demanding a congressional investigation into shopkeepers refusing to dispense Drano to homosexuals, being called "Vidkun Quisling-esque" and being accused of "trying to curry favor" for saying that gays should speak out against it......
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