About A Recent Article in the Post Gazette.....

 How would you like to face the images above?  Disturbing right?  Make you feel not so nice?  Welcome to being gay.....

I recently read an article in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette which talked about being opposed to gay marriage and how this person was accused of being a hate monger.  The article began by citing several examples of people opposed to gay rights and went on to point out what happened to them.  One example was of a provost in a mid western university who was opposed to a gay film festival being held on campus.  He was forced to resign.  Another was about a professor who tried to "rationally explain to his students why the catholic church was correct in being against gays and lesbians" who was supposedly then suspended and investigated.  The third example was about a religious group who was ostracized when they put their anti gay views out in public on a college campus.  

The author then went on to rationalize his own views about how gay marriage was wrong and complained that he is viewed as promoting hatred toward gays and lesbians.  The more I read the angrier I became!

First of all, everyone is entitled to their own religious views about things.  I am not denying that, however the examples that he cited earlier in the article had nothing to do with gay marriage and everything to do with treating gay people as something less than human.  Yes, the provost had no right to deny a film festival because it was gay oriented.  Yes, the professor had no right to start spouting his own personal views about being anti gay and using the church as support, while teaching on a public campus to students who pay money to be there and to get an education.  I am not permitted to spout my views at work about things that may offend others, nor would I want to .  Why? Work is not the place to do that! Yes, the anti-gay religious group should have been shunned from doing things like that on a college campus.  It is 2010! Why not break out the white sheets or start throwing rocks at the Amish while you are at it! It's not ok because it's no longer acceptable to discriminate because of the color of ones skin, a person's ethnic or religious views, or because of their sexual orientation.  I am glad that those people sited as examples had to answer for what they did.  They should have! 

If a professor had stated anti Semitic, or anti black views on a college campus what would have happened?  There was a radio host who made an anti black remark once about a woman's basketball team and was forced to resign.  People were in an outrage.  Why is that different than saying anti gay remarks?  The point is that it is NOT any different.  

I also love the people who start with the whole "sanctity of marriage" thing.  First of all, marriage, as far as I am concerned is a straight convention.  All that we as gays and lesbians want is to be treated with equal rights.  We want to be able to not worry about getting fired at a job for being gay.  We want to be able to have children and families and we want to be treated equally financially.  Why should I have no say over what happens to a loved one if they are in the hospital?  Why should I have to pay taxes on inheritance because I am gay?.  Why should I have to worry about being beaten up or have to listen to slurs on the radio and television everyday?  You can keep the straight marriage idea.  Just treat us as human beings.