WOW
this is why a country like america exists. so that there can be a situation where a television program can invite a stay at home mormon mother of adoptive children to stay with a family formed by two gay men who adopted 4 children.
if you haven't seen it, do anything you can to get a hold of that episode. best bet: try a search on mininova for the torrent.
so i'm not going to try not to rant. just to throw some thoughts out:
background: said mother kept feeling like she was attacked when being asked by the gay parent and friends of the gay parents what she thought about gay adoption. i think the show was very unbalanced as they showed two grown ups who were part of the foster care system and a woman who grew up in a home with her gay father and partners. there wasn't any interview with any psychiatric professional or any research used. it all rode on pure emotional reactions
not that there's anything wrong with it, because it is a very emotional AND deeply personal topic for a lot of people. when the woman (kati from OC, california, i think) kept breaking down on being challenged about her beliefs and morals (oh god i HATE that word, it's just a weapon used by the self righteous)); she kept repeating the she's sure all the gays and lesbians she interacted with were really nice people BUT she morally did not agree with their lifestyles and that children should be brought into a family where there wasn't a mother and father. that seed was planted deep and early in her life; i think that she holds onto that as unshakeable truth. and we as gay people, early or late in our lives, have always believed that we are who we are; that is our unshakeable truth (no matter what we were brought up to believe). the way she felt, when the gays and lesbians asked her about her views and how she felt, was ironically, exactly how we gays and lesbians feel when being persecuted/ confronted/ challenged by the rest of the 90% of the population. it was deeply ironic that she, in being caught up with defending her stance, did not see how she could learn to appreciate how WE felt when it is her like-minded (and sometimes WAY more than vocal) conservative counterparts view and question us.
i dun need to go into that old argument about gays having come from straight families and that divorce/abuse (spousal and child) are also prevalent in straight families, cos it's been repeated ad nauseum.
here are some thoughts:
the fact that when before galileo, everyone was taught and accepted the geocentric principle. but when he proposed heliocentrism (granted, without empirical proof) the catholic church prohibited his advocacy, forced his recantation and placed him under house arrest; it was considered heretic as it was contrary to the interpretation of the scriptures, insofar as they could understand it.
racism . mason-dixon line
there was segregation for many reasons. south of the line, children were brought up to believe black people were supposed to be slaves. it was EASY to tell who was black or white just from skin colour. blacks were treated as second class citizens and sometimes worse. just ask anyone who lived through the 50s and 60s (even NOW)
murderers, rapists, pedophiles walk amongst us, look LIKE us. the great majority of homosexual people do not have discernible external difference from heterosexuals
there are portions of the bile that denote the following to be a sin (i paraphrase): eating shellfish, wearing clothes with mixed fabrics, working on the sabbath, selling female daughters into slavery, touching the skin of dead pigs, planting of different crops side by side (thanks to president bartlett *smile*)
in a country like america where diversity is growing, there are people who have been taught that only being the same is good and safe. in a society like singapore where diversity is not only discouraged, it is quietly quashed (don't let the singaporean government try to PR it's way out of THAT one)
so are we all that different or similar? do we need to change our points of view or impress upon others our own personal points of view. does even scientific FACT matter? does the bible become something we must take as a whole or just the portions that are convenient for us to use to prop up our arguments?
maybe it was a good thing that this episode did not have any resolution of any sort. in fact, it seems to make the divide between kati and the gay family even bigger. there are people who have VERY differing views and feel very passionately about their differing views.
i say, learn from god. that above all things, LOVE comes first. and kindness and compassion.
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contemplative
drained
cheerful
tired
