One of my best friends is gay, Sarah Palin tells Katie Couric - NY Daily News

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2008/09/30/2008-09-30_one_of_my_best_friends_is_gay_sarah_pali.html

Sarah Palin, the socially conservative GOP veep nominee, is not opposed to gay people. Heck, some of her best friends are gay.

"I am not going to judge Americans and the decisions that they make in their adult personal relationships," Palin told CBS' Katie Couric Tuesday night when asked about churches, including Palin's, that promote conferences to convert gays into heterosexuals through prayer.

"I have one of my absolute best friends for the last 30 years who happens to be gay and I love her dearly," Palin said, without mentioning names. "And she is not my gay friend, she is one of my best friends who happens to have made a choice that isn't a choice that I have made."

The topic was one of several hot-button social issues that Palin fielded - prompting often nuanced responses - as part of the CBS anchorwoman's ongoing interviews with the Alaska governor. Palin said:

She would counsel a 15-year-old raped by her father to "choose life" instead of getting an abortion. "If you are asking though ...should anybody end up in jail for having had an abortion? Absolutely not."

more at link above

...it's still no business whatsoever of anyone but the person concerned. The whole "genetically determined" vs "choice" argument is dangerous. What if some geneticist finds a "cure" for gay? Will all those people "choosing" not to undergo gene therapy be fair game for discrimination and bigotry.

I don't care if homosexuality is innate, chosen, or conferred by pixiedust. It's the right of every person to determine who and how they love (as long as we're talking about consenting adults, of course). Nobody else has any right to an opinion on the matter.

then fine. That is their choice. To be honest, if they had a cure, I would consider taking it. I know that makes me weak... but I can't help it. Being straight would be so much easier.

That being said, the scientific community overwhelmingly agrees that homosexuality is not a choice. I have a lot of research I can post for you if you would like. I did a 7 page research paper on it and did a final project on Gender Identity Disorder.

That homosexuality is not a choice is also the official stance of the American Psychological Association.


I know you're not slamming gays at all, so PLEASE don't think I am implying that. You're one of the good guys. I just wish that the information showing homosexuality to NOT be a choice was more readily available to the public.

I've read (probably) many of the same reports you have, and the evidence is pretty compelling that homosexuality is innate.

My worry is that, if it ever became a "choice" (via some "cure" or other), the fact that the choice vs genetics argument is so much in the public mind would generate enormous social pressure for gay people to get themselves "cured." Parents would screen for the "gay gene" in their unborn babies, and either "cure" or abort the ones who didn't "measure up." Within a generation, we'd see homosexuality disappear from the species. And that would be a huge loss, not only for the "gay lifestyle" (whatever that is), but also for humanity as a whole. Another way of being human would vanish, in the interests of some narrow, temporary social ideal.

I don't blame you for an instant for saying you'd consider taking the "cure." It is courageous of you to be so honest. But it would still be a terrible tragedy (a form of genetic "cleansing" if you like), that future (perhaps more enlightened) generations would look back on as some form of dark age barbarism. It would be a genocide, nothing less.

What needs to happen is a reframing of the debate. The whole "choice" meme needs to be forcibly countered and made to go away. After all, Jews (and Catholics, and Muslims) are created by "choice," yet only bigots and lunatics say they should be made to change. Saying that gays who "choose" their lifestyle deserve what they get is tantamount to saying that people who "choose" to be Jews deserve the same.

not pixie dust

I never chose to love another man - but I am damn happy I do!!

peace
Scott:woohoo:

I was supposed to go out to SMS for Fall, and my boss nearly got down on his knees to beg me to stay here because of a rollout that's in progress.

But I'll be damned if I miss Beltane....

I may not be LGBT, but part of the reason I'm not upset that my man hasn't proposed yet is that we are currently in solidarity with all of the people I know who are in committed, long-term relationships and can't marry. I'm paying tons of extra taxes to cover him under my health insurance as a domestic partner.

Although I have to admit, there were some lovely ladies at Beltane who were making me recite to myself "I'm monogamous, yes I am...."

And I'm damn happy you do, too. :hug:

She is a governor with her mind made up.

"...and it's really too bad that she's gonna, y'know, burn in Hell for all eternity, but, hey, (giggle) what are you gonna do about it? That's just the way it is. Know what I mean? (wink)"

:crazy:

I don't know about Sarah Palin, and I can't be bothered to try -- but I know some evangelicals who struggle (intermittently) with the conundrum of not only loving but respecting people whom their belief system tells them will burn in hell.

Most (I think) people deal with that by updating their belief systems, but lots of evangelicals have argued themselves out of that possibility. So they cross their fingers that God will somehow fix it all in the end, or they just try not to think about it.

Sarah thinks it's better to torment a child for life by forcing it to be born, even though it will have birth defects. She ought to get the death penalty for what she's done to her own child, dooming it to a miserable life because she's so selfish.

And isn't that what your church believes?

I wish those questions would be asked.

That is how these holier-than-thou bigots render judgement: a gay person made the "wrong" choice.

Does her family know of her orientation? Has a family secret been spilled in the national media just so she could get cover?

I don't know may gay people that co-exist on friendly terms with bigots like Palin.

Gov. Palin is a pathological Liar, so anything she says must be verified.

When in reality it turns out that there is no such person - it was merely an attempt to disguise or justify racism.