: : Unfortunately, a frighteningly high number of people are; nearly all openly gay males will be attacked at some point in their lives; a quarter of them will be seriously injured as a result of it.: : Remember, they are ultimately being attacked over something that is a part of them; something that they really don't have control over.
: : In this, they are no different to people who've been attacked because their skin was the wrong colour or because they belong to the wrong Church.
: : Think about it, Lark; gays are attacked not because they are gay; but because other people are unable to tolerate their being gay.
: : It's like someone being attacked for being black; not because they were black; but because they didn't apply enough face paint to disguise the fact.
: : Or someone being raped because "they were asking for it, dressed like that" - it ultimately shouldn't matter how a person is dressed; rape is rape.
: There is a VAST difference between skin color and homosexuality, and I resent the implication that they are the same.
Really? Why?
Why does it make such a vast difference to you?
If you are gay, you'd know that it was the case; if you weren't but were secure in your own identity, you'd realize that it doesn't matter a damn to you whether someone else is gay or not.
What makes you uncomfortable is your own intolerance to an alternative lifestyle; no more, no less.
: Genetically, there is only a .012% difference in what we call "races" of humans (actually, we are all of the same race -- the human race).
Yep; both gay and straight alike; we are all human beings; so why do you insist that one group is allowed to flaunt their sexuality while the other isn't?
: An individual has NO CHOICE in his skin color or gender, etc., but "sexual orientation" is every bit a choice. Just ask former "gays" who went straight.
Good thing you put that dreadful word in quotes...otherwise you'd have to accept that those people genuinely thought themselves to be gay; which would upset you no end.
You don't think your references are slightly skewed, do you?
Next, are you going to ask a group of recovering alcoholics what they think of drinking?
You might as well pick up a bunch of former straights who went gay and use them to demonstrate that humanity is predisposed to homosexuality. Just ask red-blooded father-of-two Oscar Wilde...
If you actually talked to gays (as equals), you'd realize that they didn't have a choice to be gay; it's the way they've always been.
After all, if someone woke up in the morning and decided off the top of their head to choose a lifestyle which risked them getting killed on a daily basis, you'd question their sanity. It's not a question of choice.
Farinata.
