Well, they say everything’s bigger in Texas… I guess they aren’t referring to their hearts or sense of fairness and equality. I say fuck ‘em.

Regardless of the demographic, even within a particular state such as Texas, there are variables.  However, as a proud gay Texan living in a very progressive oasis called the city of Austin, home of the University of Texas, there are many people fighting this bigotry and narrow-mindedness in our state.  It is true that the Republican Party, with their hatred toward the LGBTQ community, rules the state.  However, I ask you to join with the many liberal, fair-minded people in this state to retake the state legislature and governor’s mansion.   We are all staunchly pro-Texas, but please do not consciously discard the many like-minded, pro-gay gays and lesbians in our great state.  The Democratic Party is alive and well in the Lone Star State, and we welcome your support!

So to summarize Anti-Homosexuals, but Pro violence against homosexuals without repercussions. Another day, another reason I’m glad I live in Canada.

Because so many conservative, bible-thumping, fake-married, closeted, self-loathing, keep-your-mouth-shut-paying,  gay Republican politicians on the “discreet” prowl do.

This is an intriguing post. While being extremely far to the left politically, I have many qualms about the gay rights movement. I am genuinely interested to hear your objections (though I admit this may not be the best forum for such a discussion).

Qua? 

If the ‘movement’ isn’t working in the way you’d like to see it work…who’s fault is that?  What is it that you are doing to further the cause as you see it?  That is a genuine question as I have no idea.

If you are, as I suspect, just sitting back and watching other people fight your battles, it seems unfair to me that you criticize their efforts without first entering the ring. 

FUCK. YOU. TEXAS.

Interesting and very well articulated. 

Feel free to provide correction if I’m wrong, but doesn’t it make sense to first focus on obtaining such things as the freedom to have legally recognized marriages and anti discrimination protections in the workplace prior to altering age of consent concepts? 

This is especially true if it is a majority of gay/lesbian/bi/trans/ individuals acting as a group seeking these expressions of equality. 

I suppose it can be seen as hypocritical that the present “Gay Rights Movement” doesn’t endorse NAMBLA but is that grounds for dismissing the movement?

I think it is fairly impossible for one group to speak fully for the beliefs of everyone in that group, and indeed this is one of the great failings with ‘liberals’ in general, they don’t present a unified front especially in the face of the apparent and again general single mindedness of the conservatives at work today.   

Also, I thought that Queer rights were born out of a desire to not be criminalized and persecuted.  I don’t get the sense that the “Gay Community” persecutes or criminalizes the more fringe elements of the community.  They simply seem to not want the fringe to be taken for the middle, and kind of treat associations such as NAMBLA as something of an embarassment. 

The only other course really is to not participate in the system…but then it just makes it that much easier for the straight majority to go back to the way things once were … what 60 years ago.

They don’t have to take anyone for the middle. That’s what coalitions are for. Roosevelt managed to make one that included both blacks and white segregationists that wanted them dead (kudos to the Democratic Party in the South for that). 

I’m not against the drive for marriage equality, as it is currently labelled. The problem is that the picture the gay rights movements paints of people just like everyone else, wanting something that everyone else wants, is a demeaning one. It’s watering down the message, surrendering convictions. It’s also convenient because it targets those people whose financial outlook allows for the healthy political support of the movement. 

LGBT rights’ public image has responded to baseless socially conservative criticisms of homosexuality-as-pedophilia by proving itself otherwise to them, rather than dismissing it for the nonsense it is. You’re unlikely to find Death in Venice embraced by the publically minded LGBT as a film of their own, even though in objective terms it has nothing to do with either sex or pre-pubescent children (in reactionary bigoted kneejerk terms, it has everything to do with it). 

Paternalistic legislation has nothing to do with how human beings are wired, which is why even though it’s illegal in the US for an adult to have consensual sex with a post-pubescent minor, everyone knows at the same time that they’re biologically equipped for the act, and that sticking a dick in a hole is only automatically synonymous with an entangled personal relationship of dominance and abuse in the minds of soccer moms. Nevermind that there’s no connection between sadistic abuse of pre-pubescent children by mentally ill people and a horny 16 year old liking an older guy that likes him back. If the media says they’re the same, the LGBT spokesmen follow suit.

Nevermind that Harry Hay Jr. was an explicit ally of NAMBLA. Nevermind that the Mattachine Society was virtually a communist ideological think thank. Nevermind the gigantic heritage of Ancient Athens, Renaissance Italy and Victorian England, through wide ranging artistic and social expression, of age disparity in consensual gay relationships, celebrated by a genuinely daring few at a time when all acts of ‘sodomy’ were illegal. Heck, nevermind that there are also almost as many secular center-right LGBT people as there are on the other side of the political spectrum. 

To truly enjoy the fruits of the LGBT movement, you should be an urban professional adult, whose only desire is to be in monogamy with other appropriately adult urban professionals, and want a left-leaning keynesian mixed economy. And the Texas GOP are the narrowminded people. 

 the Democratic Party may be alive in Texas, but its far from “well” when it comes to LGBT issues.    In neither the 2010 nor 2012 platform do Texas Democrats support anti-discrimination legislation for employment, housing or marriage rights.    The 2010 platform merely advocates that current discriminatory laws be taken off the books (in other words, discrimination can still occur by private employers, landlords, etc., it just can’t be mandated by law).   And the 2012 platform doesn’t even go that far — although it does come out in favor of adoption rights for parents regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.

In other words, while the Texas Republicans suck big time, Texas Democrats suck only somewhat less.     That’s no reason to suggest that LGBT people owe any allegience to the Democratic party.    Indeed, by praising them Dems, you demostrate why the rest of us should be so contemptuous of Texas’s LGBT community (such as it is.)     When you start confronting your acquiescence to your own oppression (here’s a clue — start outing prominent politicians — and their family members) maybe you’ll deserve more consideration.

As someone who lives in Texas I can tell you that no one I know is against anyone who is gay

 the state as a whole consistently EMPOWERS the Texas GOP, and thus to suggest that what we’re discussing here is just some fringe group opinion is asinine.    

Isn’t “no legal action being taken against those who oppose homosexuality on the basis of religion” saying that they are declaring a jihad? Sounds like it to me. You just go do whatever you want and we’ll bless it because you’re spreading your hate in the name of God.

FUCKING BULLSHIT.

It truly saddens me to know there are still so many bigoted and evil people in this world, and yet we’re the unnatural ones. I’m fortunate that the only people who really matter (my family) loves and supports me no matter what. These people do not behave the way their “God” commands them to, so to me they are just a pathetic virus infecting our country.