Rethinking Homosexuality

Yes and some anti-diarrhoea drugs (I hate the British spelling of diarrhoea, but since I am British I have to spell it that way!) list diarrhoea as their side-effects too.

well, diarrhea and suicide. If anyone takes antidepressants they oughta have their head examined

You know, I find it kind of sad. This thread started off as one of those, "I have questioned my beliefs and have found them not to be true beliefs but human-created dogma. Because of it, I am now a better person, less intolerant and I realise I was wrong and ask for your forgiveness."

Everyone jumps on board to congratulate Thunder runner for abandongin his old prejudices. Fair enough.

Then someone posts talking about homosexuality as a sin, as if they're trying to convince Thunder Runner to re-adopt his old beliefs, fair enough.

However, then the entire thread gets hijacked into a bizarre convoluted maze of badly researched data, research studies misrepresented etc. etc.

I wonder, what does Thunder think about the direction this thread has taken?

Wolf--

Which research studies and data do you discount?

The ones done by RL.

Thanks. Glad to know that.

I hope Thunder will come back and tell us what he's thinking about this knock-down drag-out, as well.

Gosh, I was gone for like two days and suddenly there are 29 pages! I'll go through and read them and tell you what I think.

Coastal Rat,

I was wondering if any of this information, data, research has given you a new impression about homosexuality.

Most of it was brought by Beth and J_B.

On the Oprah show about a week ago (haven't been able to locate the video on YouTube.com or any other source but will try and find it) a straight guy, very religious, showed up with a gay guy (both very good looking) he lived with in San Francisco for thirty days. He started out with all the biases -- homosexuality was not natural and was wrong according to the Bible. He actually went into a gay bar in San Francisco (not one of the low-key poshy bars) and was put-off by the nipple rings, half stripped batenders and generally wild clientele. With more connection to the gay guy he was living with and his friends, within the thirty days he was in that same bar doing a "shirts off dance" and concluded that if any of his kids turned out to be gay, he would be fully supportive of them. He had taken a 180 deg. turn. I got a kick out of Ophra who does believe gay men and women are just born that way kidding him about "not going any further."

I have know well over a thousand gay men from Hollywood to Laguna Beach over a lifetime well enough to have reached this conclusion:

Half of them are in long term relations (compare that to heterosexuals and it jibes up with the 50% divorce rate to a degree).

None of them ever committed suicide nor did any of them seem suicidal. This could be environmental -- rural or small town gays perhaps being more prone to depression.

Few of them were on anti-depressants. Not, certainly, more than my wealthy heterosexual Orange County clientele who seem to all be on Prozac.

Too many were alcoholic (the Orange County chapter of gay AA is as so large it has its own annual convention). That has a lot to do with the bar scene being a gathering place.

Many other observations and I don't want to be long winded here. I think many on this forum because I haven't bothered to hide it know I am gay. Certainly those who have known me since Abuzz and are now or have been on my E mail list. Incidentally, I had all my E mail list on a floppy and bought this new Dell laptop with no floppy disc player. PM me if you'd like to be back on my address book.

You were one that I wasn't sure whether you'd be annoyed if I invited you to my "Questions about Homosexuality" thread, so good to see you add your voice.

Re: gay people in Hollywood or Laguna Beach, yeah, I think they're the ones who've already "made it" -- who have found their community from whatever town they were born in, who had the wherewithall to go looking, and who have already gotten past the roughest spots.

BBB
Having lived most of my life in the San Francisco Bay Area, I have many Gay friends and acquaintances. Some are singles, most are couples of many years. We continue to stay in touch now that I live in Albuquerque. Things have improved to the extent that the only problems they have are with anti-gay people's rudeness and the violence they are sometimes subject to in public.

BBB

There's some ordinary blue and white collar people in the neighborhoods of West Hollywood and Laguna Beach. They are not all affluent. Gays seem to gravitate towards resort areas (South Beach in Florida is another example). Sorry that I haven't had as much time to scan the forum or I would have likely found "Questions." There are many misconceptions about homosexuality, some with statistics but some with statistics that are turned into a big lie. The "Brokeback Mountain" financial, critical and award success could be viewed as a watershed for understanding gay men and women. I work with three other gays in an art gallery (okay, so that industry has a dominate gay staffing), including the director, and have both conservative and liberal straight business associations and personal associations. One of my oldest friends is one of the wealthiest gay men in Orange County and is a Republican!

Oh, they're not all affluent, no, but WeHo is very, very gay!! Much gayer than average, to be sure, and with the community aspects that come with that. (As opposed to Smallruraltown, KS.)

The "Questions" thread is here:

http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=70640

It's largely concluded, but would still appreciate your take.

Sorry Anon, but I have to disagree with you on this one.

Hey Lightwizard
Great to see you :-D

Oh, hi, Montana. Haven't bumped into you lately!

Here's what I posted over on "Questions" -- Leslie Stahl's 60 minutes "Gay or Straight" text and VIDEO (the video is on the right).

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/09/60minutes/main1385230.shtml

BTW, I can hate some of the sins committed on these threads including those homophobic (casting the first stone) but I try to follow, even though I am not a Christian, Christ's love the sinner. I found it too often to be unrealistic but ignoring the bigot seems to work better than chastizing them.

Any of them celebrities?



That's the one thing I don't like too much. All that alcohol and does the gay bar scene have to have such loud music? I can hardly talk to the person I want to (although I notice this is in heterosexual bars too, specifically the "cool" ones).

I would agree with you. Brighton UK seems to be the Gay Capital of Europe. Unfortunately, this does not explain Manchester, UK. It is anything but a resort and frankly, is famous for being the butt of "most-depressing-place-to-live" jokes.



Surely, that is a difficult position to maintain, what with Republican tendencies to kowtow to anti-gay legislature?

We have some poshier gay lounges in the OC and in the LA area -- the lingering disco clubs are still noisy and hard to take for any length of time. Hamburger Mary's, the national chain that caters to both gays and straights has opened right in the heart of the OC and is doing very well. Early evening is mostly dining and a quiet drink at the bar. Later on it get's rather boistrous. Of course, the straight clientele pile in for the drag shows once a week.

Any of them celebrities? Yes, but I usually shy away from name dropping. I can be coaxed into it however.