For gays, times a-changin' for the better

Bob Dylan's 1960s song "The Times They Are A-Changin' " was written at a time when blacks were insisting on equality, young people were rebelling against war and the status quo was being routinely challenged.

But it could have just as well been written today about another huge change in this country: the acceptance, particularly among the young, that gays should have equal rights, too.

Back then, Dylan's song came to symbolize the generational schism that gripped the country. One of the verses said it all:

Indeed, the times as they relate to Americans' views of gay people are rapidly changing.

Who would have thought that the military, as recently as the early 1990s the bastion of anti-gay sentiment, would now be openly suggesting that perhaps it has been wrong?

Only a few weeks ago a Marine who served in Iraq wrote an op-ed for the New York Times pleading with President Obama to abolish the Bill Clinton-era "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which allows gays to serve in the military as long as they don't tell anyone they're gay.

Owen West pointed out that even retired Gen. Colin Powell and former Sen. Sam Nunn, the authors of "don't ask, don't tell," now both say the policy needs to be reviewed. As he noted, that's a polite way of saying they've changed their minds.

"So have many of us who wore the uniform in 1993 and supported a policy that forced some of our fellow troops to live a lie and rejected thousands who told the truth," West wrote, adding that a full 72 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan war vets were perfectly comfortable interacting with gays.

That astonishing turnabout by the military, though, pales compared to other recent events -- the unanimous decision by the Iowa Supreme Court that the state couldn't prevent gay marriage and the Vermont Legislature's action to override its governor's veto of a bill allowing gays to marry in that New England state.

What's so surprising is that the thumbs up for gay marriage didn't come from "liberal" states like California or New York, but from a heartland state supreme court not known for being liberal and a fiercely independent New England state that until the 1990s nearly always voted for Republicans, including against Franklin D. Roosevelt in each of his four presidential elections.

Here in Wisconsin less than three years ago, 59 percent of us voted to define marriage as being only between a man and a woman. In doing so we joined the vast majority of other states, which have succumbed to the culture wars promulgated primarily by the religious right and the politicians who hoped to benefit from the polarizing campaigns to marginalize gays.

Don't be surprised, though, if in the near future Wisconsin and other states decide to revisit that decision. More and more people -- another 10 percent of the population in just the past five years -- have come to understand that marriages should be between two people who love each other, and if they happen to be gay, that's no one's business but theirs. It's now estimated that 44 percent of Americans believe gays should be allowed to marry.

If the trend continues, it will be only a few years before a majority of the country comes to support marriage that includes gay couples. After all, churches that believe only men and women should marry can always refuse to marry gays, but states can -- and should -- recognize that gays can marry outside a church, just as heterosexuals have always been able to do.

Here in Wisconsin less than three years ago, 59 percent of us voted to define marriage as being only between a man and a woman. In doing so we joined the vast majority of other states, which have succumbed to the culture wars promulgated primarily by the religious right and the politicians who hoped to benefit from the polarizing campaigns to marginalize gays.

Not an issue of succumbing to a culture war, rather maintaining a culture several millenia old. And were it about the evil "religious right", President McCain, more likely President Huckabee would be in the White House. Not to worry, President Change You Can Believe In, informed by his particular Christian faith believes marriage is between a man and a woman.

This is such a twisted view that it is mentally repugnant. The sheer deception of equating living a lie with not revealing your sexual preferences is ridiculous just as the idea that some how one can not resist fulfilling those desires inappropriately. If one feels a great need to carry out activism in the military which is exactly what this is about. They want to do in the military what they have done in many public schools. They want to use their ugly lifestyle to curry favor and intimidate the majority who tolerates them but isn’t interested in their activism and phony latching on to the civil rights movement.

This would be laughable if it wasn’t so serious. They want to force us to not just to tolerate them as people living their own lives but they want to force us to adopt their worldview. It isn’t about religion it is about something that is just incorrect. They are dysfunctional and it wasn’t till the Homosexuals started doing most of the research on homosexuality and sexual disorders did that change. They are still as a core group largely the product of pedophilia and molestation. There is a growing population of casual or incidental homosexuality especially among young women because of the porn industry and the trivializing of sexual morals and restraint but overall the modern homosexual is still just as debased and diseased as they ever were as a group and as human beings many of them are being left with no place to turn for help once they reach the end of their self delusion. So many seek in sexual expression what they could not get through normal relationships with parents or other adults as children which explains the almost infantile ego driven need of homosexuals to be adored and to be center stage.

I don’t say this with out direct knowledge. I went to school with Arthur Warren who was killed as a direct result of his lifestyle. Sexual activists like to only see one side of the story but the sad truth about Arthur was that he was a very lonely individual who met his end at the end of a long relationship with a couple of younger boys who he had molested over a period of years having provided them drugs and alcohol. This is one reason Arthur did not achieve Matthew Sheppard status. I knew Arthur as a funny, gentle guy, but after high school he got lost and though he is responsible for his actions just as much as those who beat him and ran over him several times with a truck are responsible for what they did to him I believe that our increasingly debased culture is fueling this kind of thing.
Also the idea that because a man is a bit effeminate or a woman is a bit more masculine in manners or body shape that they must be gay is something that is becoming a self fulfilling label for many young kids who are confused enough without having their heads filled with images and ideas that they are not ready for. Yet these same individuals who claim to care about suicide of bullied teens don’t take any responsibility for these teens when they contract Aids, or through emulating in your face tactics place themselves at great risk. They set the fire and leave. They are cultural terrorists in my opinion and leave so many on a high wire without a net and no one will dare suggest the net is not there at all.

Dave’s gay now? LOL!

I just had a HUGE blow-up with my femi-nazi, lesiban, leftist crackpot of a sister. I guess she took offense with some remarks I made at Easter Dinner, and she’s been sending me scud-mail all week. *Rolleyes* I’m a ‘toxic person’ to her and she needs to ‘limit her exposure’ to me.

It’s truly a ‘win-win’ from MY perspective, and I told her as much...which REALLY p*ssed her off, LOL!

You know, you’d THINK now that she and her Lefty Minions are ‘in charge’ that they’d be A LOT more HAPPY. But, you just can’t make the LeftTards happy, no matter what.

I. Give. Up.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.