Something stupid, bigoted, and clueless tumbled out of the mouth of Rick Perry, Governor of Texas.
In other news today, water is wet and the sun is near the zenith at noon.
I guess being stupid is like being a Texan. Apologizes to any sane Texans out there.
Welp, there goes his chance of being elected Mayor of San Francisco.
The tide is turning and itâs not going back. Very soonâperhaps within weeksâmore than half of all Americans will live in states where same-sex marriage is legal. Itâs not the bigotry that surprises me so much as the idea that this is still a tenable position for a politician in the 21st century.
Americans can always be counted on to do the right thingâŚafter they have exhausted all other possibilities.
As evidence mounts that itâs not simply a âlifestyle choiceâ Conservatives have to lay the foundation for the idea that even when itâs conclusively proven not to be a lifestyle choice it will still be a lifestyle choice.
Too bad he doesnât resist his genetic urge to say stupid stuff.
Thereâs evidence that untreated alcoholism causes harm.
If Perry can offer some evidence that untreated homosexuality causes harm Iâd like to see it.
I canât wait for the 2016 Republican primary debates. And Iâll give you three reasons whyâŚ
I believe this statement highlights a change in discourse from âhomosexuality as a lifestyleâ to âhomosexuality as a damaging addictionâ.
Progress!
I thought he was laying the foundation for other genetic predispositions he might have. Then at some point he can claim âIâm not gay. I just have the predisposition for it.â
As much as I find his comments to be ignorant and offensive, I often find myself irritated with the liberal dogma that one is simply born gay or not, there are plenty of people in this world who engage in same sex relations for reasons other than being born gay but somehow these behaviors are discounted. The idea of what makes one gay varies considerably from culture to culture, in my admittedly limited understanding, with sexual activity with passive male partners being widely regarded as a straight activity in many cultures other than the one in which I was raised.
I also worry that this emphasis on a genetic root of the behavior will lead to increased push in the more ignorant and repressive segments of society towards some sort of testing to determine if someone carries these genes or not once they are identified, and quite possibly a âcureâ at some point.
To be clear I fully support the right of anyone of legal age to have sex with whoever they damn well please, and firmly believe itâs no oneâs business but the parties involved and whoever else they have led to believe they arenât having sex with anyone else.
Gay marriage to, although I really think we as a society should have pushed much harder for +1 benefits from employers without regard to romantic or sexual relationships and equal pay for the unattached. (In a perfect world the government would not be involved in marriage of any kind, but would allow for child custody to be arranged etc based on the wishes and parental rights of those involved.)
Well, please donât repeat this to him because what Iâm about to say will only encourage him. It does not come from that same bigoted place that he and so many others are coming from. But he is partially correct in that what we are is primarily in our genetics, like alcoholism, cancer predispositions, hair color, general temperament, intelligence, race, height, etc. But it has none of that negative flavor that he and the other bigots are trying to put on it.
I believe that we humans are primarily wired to be bisexual and most people just end up on a side, with the majority on the hetero side and a minority on the homo or bi âside,â with lots of variation in the in-between spaces due to Hippocampal structures, culture and lots of other things we donât even know about yet. Some people even grow up to be asexual, sometimes early, sometimes later in life. All types of people, all types of sexuality.
The bigots not only have a side, but they actively defend it as if itâs the only way, disregarding the scientific aspects of human variation. Yes, there are homosexual bigots, too.
Iâm not saying people consciously pick a side (although I bet there are some who do!). I am saying that people do drift to one side, predisposed by genetics, developed over a childhood, through adolescence, into adulthood. And I know that it keeps evolving as a person grows older.
We westerners always want to make these things black or white, but theyâre not. Itâs not even the Kinsey scale, frozen at a number âIâm a 4.â Human sexuality is so much deeper and more varied, changing with age and situation and personal growth over a lifetime.
Rick Perry, what a sad, sad example. Not a good leader.
âWe do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present. We are made up of layers, cells, constellations.â
â AnaĂŻs Nin
Being drunk is like being Rick Perry.
Ok, for the sake of argument, letâs say Gov. Perry is correct that the predisposition to alcoholism is exactly the same as being born gay.
- There are no laws against alcoholism
- Alcoholics are allowed to marry each other
- We donât bar people from establishments based on the fact that they have alcoholism; in fact, itâs probably illegal to do so
So if the Governor is correctâand, for the record, heâs not; but even if he wereâthen he should either be pushing for equal rights or campaigning for legislation to stop alcoholics from getting married.
âThink of the childrenâ springs to mind and then something something Jesus.
I assume then that like many (if not most) non-alcoholics Gov Perry enjoys a drink now and then.
Thereâs totally data that can be applied to that end!
In âHIV Surveillance in Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM),â the American CDC (Center for Disease Control) says that as of 2011 male-to-male sexual contact accounts for 78% of HIV cases for adult and adolescent males.
They go on to show that males worked out to 77% of new diagnoses between 2008 and 2011. During that period of time male-to-male contact produced 76% of those cases. So the CDC pretty much says with fancy smancy purportedly scientific data: Gay men accounted for greater than half the new cases of HIV between 2008 and 2011.
Neat, right?
Licentious gay dudes with their unprotected/anonymous sex equated to more than half the new cases of HIV! Lesbians not so much.
âHIV Surveillance in Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM)â
Pages 2, 3, and 9
http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/pdf/statistics_surveillance_MSM.pdf
I see what you did there! 
