Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site rand-unix.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!hao!hplabs!sdcrdcf!rand-unix!edhall
From: edhall@rand-unix.UUCP (Ed Hall)
Newsgroups: net.motss
Subject: Re: A Straight's Plea For Perspective.
Message-ID: <1828@rand-unix.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 25-Jun-84 05:25:07 EDT
Article-I.D.: rand-uni.1828
Posted: Mon Jun 25 05:25:07 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 30-Jun-84 01:18:18 EDT
References: <1000@hou5d.UUCP>
Organization: Rand Corp., Santa Monica
Lines: 32

+
Mark, you seem to be making a few assumptions here.  You seem to feel
that most all straights find the desires and behavior of gays disgusting.
I wonder if this is true; it doesn't seem typical of the straight people
I know, but perhaps they are exceptions.  (OK, so I know a bunch of
bleeding-heart liberals.  :-)  )  I won't deny that many people and
many institutions are homophobic, though.

I don't see why someone else's desire should bother me one way or the
other.  In fact, I'm flattered a bit when I learn someone of either
sex finds me attractive (although it certainly means more to me when
the feeling is a mutual one).  Also, there isn't anything inherently
disgusting in gay sex--after all, straights can, and do, engage in the
exact same sexual acts.

The problem is in people's attitudes.  And they can be pretty ridiculous.
For example, I remember how a friend's father once prohibited that I ever
set foot in his house again, because he was convinced I was gay.  And I
know of other people who have avoided me because they suspected I was
gay.

Well, I'm not.  I'm straight, though I am soft-spoken and some of my
mannerisms seem `gay' to homophobes.  And I doubt that what I've seen
is even one one-thousandth of what many gay people have to put up with.

The key word here is `people'.  And the issues have nothing to do with
desires or behaviors--they involve permitting a (large!) group of people
their dignity.  Unless, of course, you want to make people's private
lives and thoughts your business.

		-Ed Hall
		decvax!randvax!edhall