Real World 's Chet: Mormons Aren't Antigay

Gary: "An agenda of hate?" Isn't that like the pot calling the kettle black? To an anti-gay person like yourself, this all amounts to mere "opinion." To gay people who have spent their lives as second-class citizens, it's a little more than that.

Dr. P. Landerman It is very likely that you were excommunicated not because you were gay, but because you engaged in extramarital sexual relations, and did not repent. That's it. B. Bailey, you are fighting a "dogma" with another dogma; there is no convincing scientific evidence that homosexuality is NOT A SEXUAL BEHAVIOR. Please, not because something is repeated thousands of times makes it "scientific evidence" even if many scientist repeated the same thing (political agenda). Even if a homosexual gene would exist (it does not) this would make it a desirable defect.

It is interesting to read all of the opinions here. What is most interesting to me is to read all the hate speech from the pro-gay and professed ex-LDS writers. There seems to be an agenda of hate. At the same time, there is very little hate speech from the LDS posters. I guess what it comes down to is what proposition 8 was all about: opinions. Very little that is written is actually truth, just opinions.

Does this mean that LDS is inherently evil? Does this mean that every other endeavor of the church is worthless? Hell no! It just means that, like the people who run it, the LDS is flawed and imperfect. And the flaw in this case is clinging to biblical dogma in the face of overwhelming contradictory scientific evidence. And I'm not singling out the LDS. Every conservative Christian institution in the U.S. is guilty of this.

Homosexuality is a natural part of the spectrum of human sexuality. It is recognized as such by every major mainstream medical and psychological association in the world. The only organizations that don't recognize this are fundamentalist religious organizations like the LDS. No doubt your church has told you that homosexuality is a product of personal choice, or something akin to drug addiction. No doubt, your church has told you that conversion therapy has enabled large numbers of homosexuals "leave the gay lifestyle" for heterosexuality. Your church has been lying to you. Any so-called facts they may have presented to you as evidence are in reality pseudo-science manufactured by phony researchers who are either in the employ of the the church or who have a vested interest in withholding the truth from you.

Mr. N: Denying equal marriage rights to homosexuals has nothing to do with morality. It has everything to do with one group forcing its religious dogma upon another group through legislation. Homosexual orientation is a genetic trait like eye color or handedness. Biological trait profiles on human sexuality conducted by clinicians and geneticists years ago established this. Recent research backs this up. To call homosexuality immoral makes about as much sense as calling someone with blue eyes or dark skin or left-handedness immoral. Likewise, trying to change homosexual orientation is akin to trying to change eye color or skin color or handedness. It's virtually impossible. You can make a homosexual stop having gay sex, but you can't keep him or her from being attracted to people of the same sex. This is what is meant by "orientation." It has nothing to do with the sex act itself. It is a much deeper innate state of being, like heterosexuality.

Dr. Paul Landerman, disagreeing does not constitute hate. To say so would mean that you must hate everyone whom you ever disagreed with. If the Church is false and made up by man, then they could change their beliefs to fit yours, but if the Church is true and Christ really does lead it, then they cannot. It's clear by your comment which way you thought.

Saying that Proposition 8 was about hate is like saying people who are pro-life must hate women or if you are for tougher immigration laws, then you must hate Mexicans. The Mormons support of proposition 8 was never about hate, but for preserving the institution of marriage as it has stood for thousands of years and hundreds of civilizations. It is an issue of morality, not hate. Tolerance does NOT mean condoning every type of behavior and sin under the sun. You can respect and love people and still disagree with them. In the end, the Mormons constituted about 3 % of all the votes in California. In other words, they were by no means the only ones that thought that same-sex marriage was wrong.

Since I was excommunicated from the Mormon church in El Paso TX in 2003 specifically because I am gay, it is a total fabrication for Chet or anyone else to think the Mormons are not anti-gay. Just ask any of the thousands of members of Affirmation, the Gay-Mormon organization, about Brother Chet's comments. It is such a degrading and obvious example of the type of brainwashing the church accomplishes among its youth. Good luck in that broadcasting career, Chet- obviously you are not going to become an investigative reporter.

I love the continued bashing of the LDS while the African-American community (suppsed to have voted 70% in support of Prop 8) is allowed to slide. Then, too, there was the silence of the (half-Black) Democratic Presidential candidate who'd spent much of his time hanging around more than a few homophobes (McClurkin, Meeks) and couldn't be bothered to actually, you know, speak out AGAINST Prop 8 (relying on that fresh newcomer, Joe Biden, to spread the message of "if we lived in California"). Even more interestingly were all the African-American Evangelicals who strongly supported Obama for President DESPITE his "liberal" agenda (and even then, Obama refused to denounce Prop 8). Obama won California by a stronger margin than Prop 8's passage. Maybe Obama should've directed some of his millions to the No on 8 campaign and, you know, FORCEFULLY spoke out against it.