Can someone please explain to me how homosexuality leads to

[CatWoman]

bestiality?

I keep hearing that over and over.

Especially on CSpan.

Anti gay marriage folks keep saying that next men and women will be marrying horses and dogs.

How in the world can they connect the dots, and come to that ludicrous conclusion????

I remember the controversy surrounding, "don't ask, don't tell".

If I closed my eyes, I could have sworn the anti gay forces were the same people making excuses why blacks shouldn't have been integrated into the armed forces.

[daveskilt]

1. some guys have really really hairy backs?

[Bunny]

10. ***snarf**

Good one! :)

[CatWoman]

31. plus, they all like pork chops

[Az]

2. Its a slippery slope argument

And naturally a bad one. The notion being that once we relax the standards there is no end to what will be allowed. Slippery Slope arguments are considered a logical fallacy as they do not necissarily lead to what is feared and are really just an emotional appeal rather than a logic assertion.

[salinen]

3. To be anti-gay necessitates

having an atrophied brain.

[DrWeird]

4. It's how republican perverts respond to the argument...

"you have know business with what goes on in the bedrooms of consenting adults."

Apparently they think they do have that business.

[truthspeaker]

8. what goes on in your bedroom is the government's business

but how many firearms you have under your bed is not.

Rethug logic. They're the party of small government and personal responsibility, unless it involves something they don't like, in which case the government is your nanny.

[Az]

13. The repukes want to

shrink government down to the size that it just fits into your bedroom.

[antipov1]

5. It's unfortunate to say the least.

It's unfortunate that in order to homophobic, your parents do indeed need to be at least cousins, and usually siblings. That is the only rational reason that I can think of that explains people like Jerry Falwell.

[Silverhair]

16. That is an old prejudice. It isn't true that cousin marriage

is automatically genetically bad. Modern genetics has shown the a cousin marriage, if there is not a known serious family defect, is no better or worse than random marriages. Only in America is there a social stigma to cousin marriage. In much of the rest of the world cousin marriages are actually preferred.

Cousin marriages have some strong advantages. You don't get surprised by your spouse's traits & habits as you already know about them. Your in laws are already relatives. You usually get more extended family help with problems. You both come from the same culture and are more likely to understand each other.

[Caution]

6. it's called a straw-man argument

Take the argument and turn it into something else in order to prove your point. It is a classic propangandist technique. Only very stupid people fall for it.

[northzax]

7. it's because the arguements against gays and blacks

are the same thing, just a slightly different spin.

1: if we let the gays/black do this, they'll take over our culture
2: if we let the gays/blacks become teachers, they'll teach our kids that it's ok to be gay/black.
3: if we let gays/blacks marry, it reduces the quality of marriage.

now this is the strange thing. There are people I respect and like who believe for their own religious reasons, that homosexuality is a sin. It is something that they are unable to condonebut it's not something that they care to tell other people about. They see it on about the same level as something like adultery, distasteful and wrong, but a personal choice that, unless they are directly involved, takes no skin off their own back. that is a position that I can respect. I don't agree with it, but I can respect that different people have different beliefs, as long as they don't shove it in other people's faces. If you ask them, they'll tell you, but they won't walk up to you on the street and say "you're going to hell."

[Bunny]

15. But many of these people believe that gays choose their lifestyle.

Whereas one does not choose the color of their skin. Assuming that black teachers can teach their (the white folks) children to be black is sorta silly, ain't it?

[Forkboy]

9. it doesn't

these people are just projecting their own secret desires to sleep with pets.

[ninkasi]

11. They are the same people

"If I closed my eyes, I could have sworn the anti gay forces were the same people making excuses why blacks shouldn't have been integrated into the armed forces."

My only theory is that these people are so deeply insecure, so twisted with self-hatred, that they have to demonize anybody not like themselves, since they know they are pathetic losers.

They are cheating society, and themselves, by not embracing and accepting people of all races, and all sexes, and all ethnic backgrounds. It's sad that they will never really know or experience love, and friendship, that celebrates openness to difference.

I know it's not possible to change them, they can only do that themselves. It is, however possible to keep them from harming the rest of us by interfering in our lives. I could pity them more if they did less harm. As far as the bestiality claim, I can only assume that comes from the polluted, stinking cesspool of their own minds.

[terrya]

12. Because there are no reasons to prevent the legalization of gay marriages.

And those morons who are opposed to gay marriage will grasp at anything, no matter how idiotic, to scare people.

Terry

[CaptainClark23]

14. Passion

"Oh, you ANIMAL!"

QED

[IrateCitizen]

17. It's the same kind of mindset that 30 years ago...

... would have been blaming all of the "cultural decline" in the US on blacks.

NOW with Bill Moyers had an excellent interview on last week about how the right has capitalized on twisting populism -- thanks to the efforts of George Wallace in the late 60's and early 70's. It used to be that populism was an effective organizing tool to bring people's anger at the rulers of society in order to affect progressive reform. Since Wallace, it has been co-opted by the right to provide scapegoats for people who are mad about their lives not being as good as they would like them to be.

Gays are just the latest scapegoat. If you listen to RW radio, you'll hear a lot of the same backlash against "feminists".

[outinforce]

21. You're Right, You Know

I'm gay, and I must say that I certainly agree with you observation about the use of scapegoats: "Since Wallace, it has been co-opted by the right to provide scapegoats for people who are mad about their lives not being as good as they would like them to be."

I do find, though, that there are some who are eager to blame "the rich" or "the whites" or "the males" for their lives not being as good as they would like them to be.

[TlalocW]

18. Aren't certain gay men

who are a bit hairier than others known as "bears?" I seem to remember hearing a friend refer to himself as such.

TlalocW

[Az]

22. Bears

are large men. Not necissarily hairy men.

[outinforce]

32. I am old enough to remember

I am a gay man who is old enough to remember when a "bear" simply was a man -- even a lean man -- with hair.

"Bears" are now, in many cases, men who are large -- usually with hair.

[Carl Spackler]

19. This won't help

Was on Drudge a few weeks ago. Note the explaination at the bottom of the article:

http://pub.tv2.no/nettavisen/english/article177749.ece

[DrWeird]

24. That's a brilliant piece of investigative journalism, Carl.

You get the Pulitzer.

No if you could, please, answer the lady's question? What does bestiality have to do with homosexuality, and why "this won't help?"

[Carl Spackler]

33. It has nothing to do with it

this won't help because the article couples the legalization of animal sex with the introduction of gay marriage, and will be seized on by homophobes.

[outinforce]

20. It's Like The Arguments Used By the NRA and NARAL

It's very much like the arugments used by the NRA and NARAL regarding their favorite issues.

The NRA says, in effect, "If we ban even one form of gun, pretty soon all guns will be banned. We can't tolarate any deviation from our hard-line dogma."

Similarly, NARAL says, in effect, "If we ban even one form of abortion, then pretty soon all abortions will be illegal. We can't tolerate any deviation from out hard-line dogma."

Belief in a hardline dogma can lead people to some pretty weird places.

[jokerman93]

23. That's an easy one

To these people, gays are animals. Next question?

[Devlzown]

25. What does bestiality lead to?

[DrWeird]

26. Flea baths.

nt

[Terwilliger]

27. Republicanism

[CatWoman]

29. you guys are nuts

hehe

[Dennis Quaranta]

28. Don't Marry a Cat

They'll break your heart with their infidelity.

[CatWoman]

30. something about felines

we're all fickle as hell

:D

[Silverhair]

34. That is a misstatement of their argument.

If we are going to debate them, we have to correctly understand their agreement, or else we lose.

The are NOT saying that homosexuality leads to anything else. (Well, OK, some do say that, but that's not the direction of this anti gay marriage argument.)

Here is what they ARE saying: If we legalize gay marriage, on what ground do we make other marriage arrangements illegal. What about poly-marriage, incest between consenting adults, age of consent etc? All of these are under legal assault too.

About a month or two ago there was a thread on this topic of polygamy. Some guy in Utah is suing to have his six wives recognized as legal wives and he is using the recent Texas case as his precedent. So it is a serious question.

If we are going to win on this one, we have to have an answer that goes further than a version of, "Don't be silly." The "I wanna marry my dog." argument is taken care of by saying that the beast can't give full consent.

[outinforce]

36. A Very Good Point!

Thanks for making it, Silverhair.

One of the mistakes I think we progressinves sometimes make is to simply laugh at what the RW says. But the RW can -- and often does -- marshall some arguments that resonate with a great number of Americans.

Simply to sit back and chortle amongst ourselves may feel real good. But if we do that, without putting the real mental effort forth to understand the arguments of the RW and to marshall our won serious intellectual ammunition will, I fear, mean that we may awake one day to find ourselves in a position where few people agree with our positions.

[CatWoman]

37. Silverhair -- you are always picking on me

I actually heard callers on Cspan say that gay marriage will lead to marriages between humans and animals.

Honest.

[Silverhair]

38. Yes, You almost certainly heard some callers say that.

The RW has their fringe that they roll their eyes at just like we have some fringe that we wish would go away.

I don't have any direct evidence to support my following assertion, but I think it would explain what happened. C-Span wants viewers too, and outrageous callers make for better viewing. Intelligent, knowledgeable callers can be boring, although very informative. The want riled up people on the phone, and those are the ones that make it past the call screeners. I could be wrong about that and will welcome correction from anybody with better knowledge.

The mainstream conservatives, however will be asking the question: "If we allow homosexual marriage, by what reasoning to we prohibit other forms of marriage between consenting adults?" And it is a good question.

BTW - I support allowing marriage between ANY consenting adults to include polygamy & group marriage.

[BlueEyedSon]

35. It may lead to "mosturizing" and "redecorating"

That would be TERRIBLE!