gondram - here'a comment a very well-spoken and deep thinking freeper made on another thread, and the whole discussion is highly interesting. He says what I would like to say better than I can:
"Because of nanny-staters like you!"
You could not be more wrong about me -- as a Republican, I favor local standards, not Federal micromanagement of communities, schools, etc.
Before aggressive Federal judicial social activism fueled in no small part by feminist/socialist/pansexualist lobbying, communities were free to exercise social control of extended family and community for the benefit of children; for instance, a community could fire the young elementary-school librarian who became pregnant by a male teacher with a wife and 3 kids in the same town. The wife and kids were devastated socially and thrown on the welfare of the community, not to mention the effect on the pupils when the teacher abandoned his family to go live unmarried with the librarian. This was an actual case that was brought before the Supreme Court, which affirmed the librarian's right to keep her job.
There are thousands of examples of cases that were used throughout the 70s and 80s to destroy community-based protections for children. The growth of urban anonimity has also provided safe haven for many kinds of abuses against children by various kinds of predators inside and outside their families. And what was this librarian to the pre-existing wife and children, if not a predator? Other taxpayers in the community did not wish to reward the librarian's callous unconcern for their well-being.
Do you excuse "liberty-seekers" for using the courts to hammer individual "freedoms" no matter whose defenseless children get abandoned in the process?
No political ideology is going to solve the problem of personal irresponsibility. Criminalizing Christian expression as "hate speech" is, however, going to eliminate one of the most historically effective means of empowering individuals to solve personal problems and assume personal responsibility. The homosexual movement has been aggressive in labeling Christianity "bigotry" because of its age-old teachings that utter sexual libertarianism greatly increases the risks, dangers and harms to individuals and society.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1736223/posts?page=98#98
Big Setback for Gay Marriage
I've gotten involved in a conference call with people in California who seem to under the impression its still early... but I wanted to respond quickly how much I appreciated your Freepmail and the information in that last post - I'll be able to look at it late tongiht. Thanks again.