Arguing that gay men live shorter lives than their straight counterparts, right-wing website OneNewsNow posits this question: “Smoking banned – so why not a more dangerous lifestyle, too?” Um, because smoking is a choice, while being gay is not. [ONN]
Outrageous!
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CitizenGeek
I’d love if these absurd Christian groups actually told their readers that they got these statistics that show gay men living shorter lives than straight men are from the 80s when the AIDS epidemic. It’s like saying that Jews live shorter lives than Christians, and presenting stats from the time of the Holocaust to prove that point.
seitan-on-a-stick
And the medical evidence to support this comes from where…..?
Paul
Ah, the good old American “Family” Association. Our fundamentalist Christian church had no mailing address, so their newsletters came directly to my parents’ house. I remember reading them as a child. May God have mercy on their poor, misunderstanding souls.
Michael J
I think the gay-isn’t-a-choice argument isn’t something to rely on for defending gay rights. Leaving the question of whether OneNewsNow’s “evidence” is accurate (it probably isn’t), they and many others on the Christian right believe that while same-sex orientation may not be a choice, acting on that attraction to live what they believe is an unhealthy lifestyle is a choice. And the fact that there are still so many closeted cases suggests that for some men and women, living a lie and not acting on one’s attractions is in fact a choice that can be made.
Rather than say we were born gay and didn’t make the choice, I think we should be saying yes we’ve made the choice to live openly and honestly with our sexual orientation by loving and/or having sex with people of whatever sex or gender we are attracted to, and that it is a good thing, a human right, to have the choice live honestly and openly with as much love and happiness as happily as possible. That’s the way I think about how being gay relates to my own life, not that I am gay because I can’t help it.
Michael J
PS Smoking harms other people beside the smoker him- or herself. Being gay harms no one and, if one is open about it, sets a good example and contributes to everyone’s freedom.
Robert
I agree with Michael. Arguing for equal rights based on biology could very well backfire. [Personally, I don’t think sexual orientation is strictly biologically determined, and I don’t think current research into sexuality supports any claims to that. Even if it did, it wouldn’t necessarily be the boon to gay rights that some believe.] I think we should always argue for gay rights on the basis of personal freedom. It should be an ethical argument rather than a scientific one. Ironically, we should be arguing for sexual freedom just as the founding fathers argued for religious freedom.
john
I went and checked out that website. It’s filled with the most paranoid, hate-filled, factless bullshit I’ve ever read, they give Anne Coulter a run for her money.
There is a part that says “gay men spread AIDS, getting rid of them would stop this disease as they are the only ones spreading it around the world, FACT”…they use the word “fact” at the end there, about something that ISN’T fact and is easily researchable and proven wrong, that somehow places like Africa where AIDS is rampant must be filled with gay people forcing gay sex on all the straight people leaving all those poor orphaned kids?
Does anyone feel like gays are the new Jewish problem and it’s only a matter of time before Christians start bringing in the trains to take us away to special camps?
I know that sounds far-fetched, but before the Nazi propoganda machine successfully persuaded an entire country to believe Jews had lice in their hair and were lower than rats, everyone in the country who had Jewish friends sat around going “that could never happen”, but the Nazi’s became more and more powerful and became the government, they made and passed laws and before you know it, Jewish people started disappearing.
I’m just saying, don’t put it past them to gather power, their paranoia and hatred of gay people will run it’s course while we all sit here going “but everyone loves us”. no they don’t, how many of your friends and work pals would actually stand up against an army and the possibility of dying for your life?
I wonder how many Jewish people sat in the camps wondering why all their non-Jewish friends were doing NOTHING to help them get out?
This would be a great What-If movie…Christians take control of the government, years go by and reforms are made to the laws, freedoms for gay people are slowly taken away and then one day everyone is forced to decide, do I bury my head in the sand and save my own ass while my gay friends are being arrested on the streets and taken to “re-education” camps to be reprogrammed or worse. And would Jewish people stand up and say “not again!” for a different minority group?
If our voting power was taken away and straight Congressman didn’t have to worry about trying to buy our votes, how quickly would they turn if the leadership told them we were lower than rats?
Brian Miller
“Smoking banned – so why not a more dangerous lifestyle, too?” Um, because smoking is a choice, while being gay is not.
Terrible argument for a number of reasons:
1) The claim that gay people live shorter lives is bogus. Accepting the specious assertion by arguing against it is a mistake.
2) Sexual orientation is not a choice. Sexual behavior, on the other hand, is a choice. By arguing that sexual behavior isn’t a choice, it also muddies the issue.
3) Ultimately, the argument should be that we live in a free society where consenting adults are sovereign individuals who may pursue whatever relationships they wish with each other. Not only are the assertions that “gay men live shorter lives” a load of crap, but the notion that government busybodies (of whatever political bent) should be running around banning things that they decide are “bad” for us should infuriate basic American sensibilities about individual liberty.