I do have children.
I guess the major difference between our stances (and I don't want to put words in your mouth) is that I don't have issues with homosexuals per se functioning as Scout Masters, priests, pastors, teachers, ect, but I would probably be more careful and monitoring my children around them.
Read below why this stance of yours is asking for trouble.
My brother is gay (he was abused as a child) and is an absolutely wonderful person. He is one of the most giving people that I know. Many of his friends are gay whom I like as well. I would feel comfortable leaving my children with my brother or allowing him to be a Scout Master, teacher, coach, ect. (in fact, he was a elementary school teacher in the D.C. area.). When my parents found out he had been abused (by a trusted family member), they got him the necessary counseling...as well as the rest of the family.
First of all he's not 'gay' He's mentally diseased due to trauma. This condition is 100% curable.
Secondly you may feel that he is safe around your children but what about the endless stream of other diseased individuals that will tramp through his life? You see I have a mentally diseased brother also. He was safe but one of his 'friends' molested me. No child is safe in the company of sodomites. If they don't molest one of their friends will. (Note that my brother's disease was due to his totally lacking relationship with our father (as far as I know he was not molested))
Third if your parents had got him the required counseling he would no longer be choosing to remain in that deadly pattern of behavior. He could be living a normal healthy life instead of being trapped in perversion. I assume that the trusted family member is now in prison? If not why not?
You mention that he was an elementary school teacher. Past tense. Why is he no longer teaching and what is he doing now?
Any exposure of children to homosexual behavior is child abuse.
On the children stance...congrats...I can tell that you care deeply for children. So do I...
As for your take on my stance...Thanks for your opinion...You are right about the various "friends" in his life. I watch carefully and my brother is vary vigilant...but you are right, we can't have our eyes everywhere... Case in fact, we have another family member who is now in prison who molested his teenage daughters. He was not homosexual, but rather a pedophile and we did not suspect this activity in the slightest. He too had been molested as a child. He was labeled a heterosexual and ended up victimizing those children that he was charged to protect.
As for my brother, he has decided to mantain this lifestyle despite the counseling. Did he get enough? Who can say...he feels like he has dealt with it enough and chooses that lifestyle. Do I agree with it, no. Do I still love him as my brother yes.
He is a musician and photographer. He has left teaching as he did not like the administration and wanted to be his own boss. He taught because it provided him an outlet to express himself. He maximized that avenue and now performs and sells his photography and is a mortgage broker. He did not leave the teaching profession out of scandal. He is also about as liberal as they come...we differ on a lot of things, but we have learned to respect each other's decisions.
As for the family member that abused my brother...he passed away before I came forward to my parents that I had been abused. That is a really difficult thing for me to talk about as I don't like talking about myself being a victim. This family member abused several of his grandchildren and other boys in the family before I outed him. I think if one of my uncles or cousins would have outed him long before, my brother and I would have avoided the shame and embarrassment of having these scars that we deal with on a daily basis. My parents decided not to try to prosecute as he only had a couple of weeks to live when I came forward and was bed ridden. They talked to the family attorney and the local authorities and they decided that it would be harder on us if it got outed (I was a teenager when I approached my dad and I did not want this to be public)
My brother and I have dealt with our abuse a little differently. I don't talk about mine very often. It defines my brother and he is bitter and angry about it. I have read a lot about pedophilia and the way that it emotionally scars you. Maybe I am too soft on him, but maybe my brother is too hard on my grandfather...he too was an abuse victim who made the decision to not break the cycle of abuse.