Allen Brodie, a former chairman of the county's Human Relations Board, said the city is promoting gay and lesbian lifestyles by erecting litter cleanup signs along Park Avenue that are sponsored by the "gay and lesbian community."What a dill-hole.
"I do not believe (the sign) should be allowed in such a place of prominence," he said. "It's in the downtown district where children ask questions. We need to try and encourage the best quality of life we can."
The signs should be placed in a more discreet location or removed altogether, he said.
[...]
Mr. Brodie, a past member of the Aiken County Council, insisted that moving the sign would not be discrimination. It's unfair, he said, to force taxpayers to pay for the signs, which are purchased by the city.
Mr. Brodie said he didn't mind parkway signs sponsored by groups such as the Garden, Rotary or Sertoma clubs. But the gay and lesbian sponsorship of a parkway crosses the line and becomes a moral issue, he said.
"This sign, to me, it falls in a different category," he added.
Thursday, April 14, 2005
Dude pisses me off
From AikenOnline:
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7 comments:
I disagree.
I don't think that keeping little children in the dark about gays is going to make them homosexual or biased against them. In my opinion, children should be able to grow up thinking that the way their family functions is the way families function.
Let me discuss a different subject. Last Sunday, I took Connor with me and Weinstock up to see a painting at Weinstock's father's house. First, though, we stopped by his mothers. I hadn't considered it until just then, but my son doesn't know about divorce. My son does not have any idea that such a thing exists.
I had to think fast, by referring to his mother's house as "Weinstock's house", and from there, I just called the other "Weinstock's Dad's house". Now. I didn't outright lie to him, but neither did he go into quesitons about Weinstock's Mom or why I call it just his father's house or anything like that.
I was able to avoid talking to a five year old about divorce and getting it into his head that it's possible that he could one day find his mother and father seperating.
You can't worry about your parents divorcing if you don't know that divorce doesn't exist.
Now. Likewise, I have no intention to mention gays or lesbians to my son. There's a huge debate on gay issues, and I don't mean to get totally into that. I'll just cover the bases briefly to support what I'm saying.
Firstly, it's never been proven gays inherit homosexuality. Every study that's been done on it has been inconclusive, with the results pointing to environmental issues and else. It's been highly touted that they're "born that way", but there has never been any proof to support it.
Secondly, I am a strong believer that all of us go through homoerotic stages in our lives - usually between the ages of 10-20, where we find ourselves aroused or interested in those of the same sex. Our hormones are raging, as everyone knows. I do feel that in those situations, guidance has a strong impact on what decisions we come to.
Thirdly, homosexuality is an orientation based entirely on sexual preference. Perhaps it's wrong to assume that heterosexuality is the standard, but I don't have to describe what Faye and I do in the bedroom for my son to accept what our relationship is. To explain homosexuality is to talk about sex. And my son's just five years old. He isn't going to learn about that anytime soon.
I believe that when a child reaches an age where he can rationalize situations - find a greater understanding - and make decisions based on thought and not emotion - then that child is prepared to talk about the birds and the bees. And the Bees and the Bees. And, yes, divorce.
Everyone's heard of those situations where some kid at school mentions sex or says a crude word and then the parent has to go and explain it right away, even though they think it's too soon.
Well, that's not how it should be. Kids should be educated when they're able to understand what they're learning. But the kid at the playground is a random factor.
A sign on the side of the highway is not.
Nor would I want a sign on the side of the highway advertising the Divorced Community.
Divorce is fine when you're old enough to understand it, but it doesn't need to be taught to children when they're too young to fully comprehend it. The same for homosexuality.
Call me a religious zealot or a conservative nut-job if you want.
I'm just trying to raise my kids to be the best they can be, and I don't want society around me telling my kid shit that I decide he isn't ready to know about yet.
I see where you're coming from. If you start from the idea that a man-woman relationship is ideal, then sure, anything--divorce, homosexuality--that subverts that is to be avoided.
I don't come from that frame of reference.
I don't believe you have to explain "what goes on in the bedroom" to explain homosexuality. All you have to say is that there are two people in love with each other, just like how Mommy and Daddy are in love with each other.
This, of course, allows the child to make the connection--"I can love anyone I want!" And I think it is this possibility that makes it scary. I think that people don't want their kids thinking that they have the choice to be gay.
So, rather than being accepted and normalized, homosexuality is presented as a regrettable occurrence that happens and must be dealt with, but that certainly isn't ideal. Like divorce.
Homosexuality isn't going away. It occurs naturally in animals, and it occurs naturally in us, too. We can marginalize homosexuals, claim that their relationships destroy "the family"--even when their relationships are family--or we can move past the idea that our way is the best and every other way should be shunned.
The comparison to divorce is disingenuous. Homosexuality is about being with the one you love. Divorce is about giving up on love.
Telling Connor that two people of the same sex can live together and love each other (like, for example, Joshua's grandmothers) does not threaten you and Faye's marriage, or make your family unstable in Connor's mind.
If homosexuality was normalized, there wouldn't need to be "The Gay and Lesbian Community". But right now, that's all we've got fighting for it. All we can do is put the idea out there.
It's not subversive, and it doesn't hurt anybody. I can't think of a good reason to keep "The Gay and Lesbian Community" from adopting a highway.
In a society based upon passing down our country to our children, a man-woman relationship is ideal. We are also naturally mothers and fathers. I can't sanction a gay relationship to be the same as a man-woman relationship for those reasons and others.
But my argument wasn't against homosexuals. It's defending my desire to raise my child how I want, and talking to him about things WHEN I want - not when he happens to read a sign on the road.
I'm not arguing against informing and accepting. I'm arguing about putting things out there when there are people like me that might not want it readily available.
You said that comparing it to divorce doesn't work. Well, let's compare it to sex then. I like sex. It's great. But I don't want my boy to learn about that yet. I don't want him to see things about that.
We don't let him watch Disney movies if they're too suggestive sexually (to make parents like them more, I can only assume). We monitor what he sees wherever he might see it.
He's just a kid - he's too young to have to learn about things beyond his daily experience, whether child care professionals or whomever else thinks that he could manage it.
I don't really think he's ready to learn about man-woman relationships. A lot of little boys think girls are "yucky" when romance first comes around for them. Why teach them before that happens that men love each other like men love women? That's more confusing than helpful, in my opinion.
Yes, let's teach everyone in America tolerance for those that wish to do things they want to do - what makes them happy (within reason, of course) - but why do we have to teach them now? Why does the boy that just learned to read have to read about gays and lesbians NOW and not when he's old enough to have worked through his initial stage of "women are yucky"?
I don't see it happening to my kid, but what if a boy is told that men can love men, just as men love women, and then when he first gets those "women are icky" feeling, he decides he must be gay? We don't tout things built or cared for by the Hetero-male and the Hetero-Female community.
And until the gay community stops saying that they were "born that way" without admitting that there was SOME choice involved, then they lose a lot of ground that would compell me to side with them on things like this.
I am not sure we will come to an agreement on this one. I think you're coming at it as an "us" and "them" situation, whereas I'd like to put everybody in "us". You're saying "It's okay for them to do what they want as long as it's not in my face." I'm saying that all of us have the right to live and love how we want, and that no one should have to hide, or be relegated to "other" status.
Unless....
Well, you have to at least admit that we Muslims don't need anyone sharing our "other" spotlight with us.
On a serious note, I tend to agree with A.J., which kind of surprises me. Just kidding. I mean, remember the post you made about how we cannot be absolutely free, because then we infringe upon the rights of others? And also, I can imagine the next step coming down to signs being put up by the Heterosexual Community. Slippery slope, I know, but I have a feeling that might put the gay community up in arms. And what is the point of putting up such signs? Is it to tell everyone, 'hey we are of some use to you after all!' Or, maybe 'we're not such an evil in your society after all, see what nice things we do for you?' It seems rather apologetic in some ways. But as a driver driving down the street, I and most everyone I know would just be completely put off, and have that whole 'look at what they're doing now' reaction, fed up of the politics. It would just be annoying, frankly. Which doesn't suit the purposes of the Gay Community I should think. Unless they want it to be interpreted as an 'in your face' sort of gesture. Comparing human sex to animal sex is disingenuous in my opinion, because we are not animals. We have free will, we are not ruled by instinct. We have an intellect and choices, and thus, the concept of morality. As far as hiding everything from kids goes, I guess I will just have to shrug when my kids question me and tell them it's just another part of non-Islamic culture, and to thusly disregard it and not give it too much attention.
It's just one of those Adopt-a-Highway signs. All kinds of clubs do that.
I suppose people would be unhappy if the Ku Klux Klan adopted a highway. Actually, I think that has happened before.
Anyway, the city/local government is the one that actually puts up the sign. The club just volunteers to keep a section of the area pretty. If "The Gay and Lesbian Community" wants to give back to their community, they should get the same treatment as any other group that does so.
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