All that needs to be said about gay marriage.

[Trynn]

I'm curious about this. Has anyone given you a reason why they think being asexual would be a threat to straight marriages?

Because then people would have sexless marriages or no marriages at all and this is bad because we are all created sexual beings because Adam and Eve.

I don't run with really conservative crowds, but the fundy lite crowds I run with mostly just deny my existence, because Adam and Eve. Even when I bring up the part where the bible talks about the gift of singleness, they still keep bringing up Adam and Eve. They are definitely afraid of me for some reason, or they wouldn't bother arguing so vehemently.

A fundy person, aside from denying my existence, would also insist asexuals are bad because we would be less likely to produce pweshuss baybeeez. An aromantic would especially be a threat to them because without marriage you're nothing to them.

Maybe also they are afraid that a person might find out they are asexual which would lead to divorce... Which, from what I've read, isn't what happens In the majority of cases but evidence be damned, there are people to hate!

So, mostly the same old "if gayness is accepted, everyone will be gay????!??!" Type nonsense, with a bunch of biblical crap thrown in.

I know I don't have it half as bad as actual gay people have it, but that just means I don't want to think about it, because coming out has been so painful... People hate me. Why do they hate me? It must be so muh worse for homosexuals.. My best friend of 10 years cut me out of her life because of this.

I'm sorry... Not trying to make this about me. I was originally making a joke, and... Dammit it feels good to talk about this. Thank you for listening, whoever read trough all that.

[Mama Mia]

Wow, Trynn, I'm so sorry to hear people you know react so badly! I would think it would be something that wouldn't matter to them at all. I could see your friends or family maybe initially trying to set you up on dates or worrying that you will be lonely....but after you explain to them it's just not something you are interested in, they should just accept that.

[docmom]

Don't forget birth control and abortion. Again things that don't matter.

Number of times Jesus mentions the poor: 407. Number of times he mentions abortion, homosexuality, or the right to keep and bear spears and slingshots: 0

Methinks they maybe don't share the same priorities.

[snuggles911]

As a lifelong Christian, I'm utterly confused by how obsessed many of my fellow brethren are with gays and gay marriage.

It came up in my Sunday school class this past Sunday. The topic was the danger of false teachings. The teacher used gay-accepting churches as examples of this.

Oddly she (the teacher) was a pregnant teenager before getting married. Her eldest daughter lived with her boyfriend for years before getting married. Her youngest daughter has been arrested for public drunkedness and spends most nights at her boyfriend's house. Yet, she often feels the need to bring up the sin of homosexuality, even when it's not directly related to the Sunday school class she's teaching.

Given that most studies show only b/w 2.5 and 5 percent of the population is gay, wouldn't it make sense to focus on heterosexual sexual sin (if you are intent on focusing on peoples' sins, that is). I mean, why doesn't she call our pastor out for marrying people who have been divorced rather than railing against gay marriage? Why doesn't she teach about the sinfulness of heterosexual couples living together outside of marriage? It drives me nuts. :angry-banghead:

[Snarknado]

Many Christians have made fighting against gay rights an idol in their lives. Therefore they are sinning by focusing so much of their anger and hatred towards gay people. :pink-shock:

[Cleopatra7]

Number of times Jesus mentions the poor: 407. Number of times he mentions abortion, homosexuality, or the right to keep and bear spears and slingshots: 0

Methinks they maybe don't share the same priorities.

Homosexuality as we know it today didn't exist in antiquity, so it's not surprising that the Bible wouldn't mention it. The ancient Greeks practiced what we would consider institutionalized pederasty, which no one outside of NAMBLA is advocating today. The ancient Romans as a group disliked Greek pederasty, and saw it as a vice, although there were Greco-philes among them that practiced it. Indeed, Augustus Caesar was complaining about homosexuality and poor family values in the early first century! To be sure, LGBT individuals have existed in all times and all places, but the idea that one could have a person of the same gender as one's exclusive partner probably is only as old as Oscar Wilde.

The ancients would have been puzzled by modern same-sex marriage, but they would have found egalitarian straight marriages to be equally confusing. Even the "separate but equal" rhetoric of modern patriarchalists would have been strange to them, because they were convinced that women were not equal.

ETA If you believe, like evangelicals do, that Jesus Christ is God and therefor all seeing and all knowing, then it seems like he should have addressed this topic, even if it didn't really exist back then. Paul's condemnation of the "effeminate" is vague and could mean any number of things.

[SunnyAndrsn]

According to my fundie friend, it is against the bible to stand by and condone sin. That itself is a sin. To even not take a stand at all is wrong. So you must always fight for Gods laws to be implemented. Plus fundies believe the gays will somehow destroy families and that will destroy America.

Then why aren't more fundies protesting divorces like Gwyneth Paltrow's, protesting outside of bars because drunkenness is a sin, or protesting all the other "obvious" sins? They focus solely on gay marriage, which apparently is the only sin God can't forgive.

[Rachel333]

Regarding asexuality, it's pretty accepted that some people are called to remain single, even among fundies (see Bill Gothard). They encourage marriage, but I have never heard anyone say that someone is sinning by not being married or romantically involved the way they insist all gay people are sinful. I know multiple people in my conservative Christian community who never married, either because they didn't find the right person or because they were really not interested in it at all. I have no doubt that they've heard people say stupid things about it to them (no matter how you live or what you believe you're going to get that), but for the most part it's just not a big deal, while the slightest hint of accepting homosexuality will get them in an uproar. It seems like the main issue with asexuality is just getting it on people's radar so it's a valid form of self-identification.

[Cleopatra7]

Regarding asexuality, it's pretty accepted that some people are called to remain single, even among fundies (see Bill Gothard). They encourage marriage, but I have never heard anyone say that someone is sinning by not being married or romantically involved the way they insist all gay people are sinful. I know multiple people in my conservative Christian community who never married, either because they didn't find the right person or because they were really not interested in it at all. I have no doubt that they've heard people say stupid things about it to them (no matter how you live or what you believe you're going to get that), but for the most part it's just not a big deal, while the slightest hint of accepting homosexuality will get them in an uproar. It seems like the main issue with asexuality is just getting it on people's radar so it's a valid form of self-identification.

I think a lot of conservative religious people object to the idea of sexual orientation in general. The Catholic church, for example, does not believe that a person is gay in the same way that a person is black or female. There are individuals who suffer from the desire to commit sexual acts with persons of the same gender, and such people have to resist them, much in the same way that other people have to resist committing sexual acts with persons of the opposite gender. The problem with this view is that it ignores the reality of LGBT and asexual people, preferring to make do with an outdated Aristotelian view of nature, and dismissing people who don't fit into outliers who aren't worth thinking about.

[twinmama]

I greatly discouraged by the fact that the gay rights movement is 40 or 50 years old, and they STILL don't have legal rights.

It is not where it should be yet, but the tidal wave of states legalizing gay marriage in the last few years has been amazing to witness!

[Trynn]

Adventists still have told me that they don jnow if its ok to be asexul. More when I'm not at work. Validation is only half he bsttls

[CynicMom]

[...] I don't run with really conservative crowds, but the fundy lite crowds I run with mostly just deny my existence, because Adam and Eve. Even when I bring up the part where the bible talks about the gift of singleness, they still keep bringing up Adam and Eve. They are definitely afraid of me for some reason, or they wouldn't bother arguing so vehemently. [...]

I've heard a lot of fundie-lites argue that all women are asexual. They don't use those words, but their literature is filled with chapters about how it's normal for women to hate sex/find it painful/etc. The man is supposed to make an effort but ultimately the women are just supposed to accept sex anyway. If someone believed this I could see how they would find asexuality threatening.

[Marianne]

Number of times Jesus mentions the poor: 407. Number of times he mentions abortion, homosexuality, or the right to keep and bear spears and slingshots: 0

Methinks they maybe don't share the same priorities.

Number of times where the law and the reasons tell : "we should using a book of mythology that some people considers true to make law" : 0.

As said President Giscard d'Estaing to the Pope : "I'm catholic, but the french women of my country are not. They need abortion, I think abortion is bad, but I give it to her because I respect their need and belief"

[Becket70]

The whole attitude about the "gay lifestyle" really gets to me. I assume gay people do pretty much what everybody else does. That is try to get through life and have a good time while on this earth (and I don't mean sexual). Other than what they may do in their bedrooms, which is no one's business anyway, how is their lifestyle different from anybody else? Work, play, sleep, love. What more can you ask for? (other than winning it big in the lottery)

[Cleopatra7]

The whole attitude about the "gay lifestyle" really gets to me. I assume gay people do pretty much what everybody else does. That is try to get through life and have a good time while on this earth (and I don't mean sexual). Other than what they may do in their bedrooms, which is no one's business anyway, how is their lifestyle different from anybody else? Work, play, sleep, love. What more can you ask for? (other than winning it big in the lottery)

From what I can tell, the "gay lifestyle" refers to lots of promiscuous, anonymous sex, often in public places, constant barhopping, and illegal drug use. Basically, they take the bathhouse gay culture of the 1970s and assume that all LGBT living in 2014 are just like that, more evidence of how religious conservatives are intent on living in the past. Although, I don't think that there was a lesbian bathhouse culture or anything like that. Conservatives also like to fixate on things like the Folsom Street Fair, although I was told on another board that the FSS is actually a leather event that attracts gay and straight people alike.

[Marianne]

From what I can tell, the "gay lifestyle" refers to lots of promiscuous, anonymous sex, often in public places, constant barhopping, and illegal drug use. Basically, they take the bathhouse gay culture of the 1970s and assume that all LGBT living in 2014 are just like that, more evidence of how religious conservatives are intent on living in the past. Although, I don't think that there was a lesbian bathhouse culture or anything like that. Conservatives also like to fixate on things like the Folsom Street Fair, although I was told on another board that the FSS is actually a leather event that attracts gay and straight people alike.

It's as logical as if a gay say (said ?) : "Heterosexual want to bond us, and to whip us ! I know it, I went to a BDSM club, and they were all heterosexual !"

[DuggarsTheEndIsNear]

According to fundies Gay people are going to hell. It's a sin, God created Adam and Eve blah blah blah. I guess they all sat down with coffee with God and God personally told them he hates Gay people :naughty: It's funny how some Christians are so quick to judge others when their own backyard isn't clean. The bible says love your neighbors which includes Gay people and not to judge. Homosexuality needs to be legal in all 50 states.

I live by my grandfather's philosophy: "I'd rather go to hell, all the fun people are there."

[Snarknado]

The whole attitude about the "gay lifestyle" really gets to me. I assume gay people do pretty much what everybody else does. That is try to get through life and have a good time while on this earth (and I don't mean sexual). Other than what they may do in their bedrooms, which is no one's business anyway, how is their lifestyle different from anybody else? Work, play, sleep, love. What more can you ask for? (other than winning it big in the lottery)

I absolutely loathe when people say gay lifestyle. I do everything any other person does from day to day. There is no lifestlye, there is only life.

[FloraKitty35]

Many Christians have made fighting against gay rights an idol in their lives. Therefore they are sinning by focusing so much of their anger and hatred towards gay people. :pink-shock:

They should fight as hard as against Chickenetti or Tater Tot Casserole as they do marriage equality.

[docmom]

I absolutely loathe when people say gay lifestyle. I do everything any other person does from day to day. There is no lifestlye, there is only life.

But what about your secret meetings to destroy straight marriages and turn kids gay??

[Snarknado]

But what about your secret meetings to destroy straight marriages and turn kids gay??

Shhh...we never speak of those above ground.

[Toothfairy]

But what about your secret meetings to destroy straight marriages and turn kids gay??

You can't turn someone gay? Wtf is wrong with these fundies? I support gay marriage because it's a free country. Recently a gay couple in my neighborhood adopted a little baby girl and just had a baby shower a few weeks ago. It was *gasp* at a church. Fundies should keep their beliefs to themselves and stop talking bad about gays. What if their child were gay? How do they think their child would feel? Think fundies think :pull-hair: