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News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyAugust 17th, 2007
Don Frankenfeld, a former Republican state legislator, wrote an article discussing why he decided to join Equality South Dakota. Frankenfeld uses humor to reach both gay people and Republicans in South Dakota, whom he believes need each other.
The following candid remarks of his amused me, so I’m sharing them with you:
The fact is homosexuality baffles me, particularly when looking at the most fundamental physical aspect: an attraction to certain body parts and certain sex practices. I can’t understand why some guy would be mesmerized by my equipment, and want to do that with it, when he has the same equipment himself.
Wait a minute. I don’t understand heterosexuality any better. Over the years I have become accustomed to the thought that a guy would naturally be sexually attracted to a woman, particularly certain body parts. (I write from the perspective of a guy, as it is the only perspective I have.) Moreover, a guy might relish the thought of doing that. But why?
Whatever your orientation, desire propels you, and is in turn propelled by intrigue, instinct and mystery. Sometimes sexual attraction is irrational, but always, it seems to me, it is trans-rational. So given the mystery of our own sexuality, who are we to judge someone else’s, as long as it is between consenting adults?
I think Frankenfeld has identified one of the stumbling blocks that people both gay and straight have with seeing each other as equal. We don’t have “get it” to get along.
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Jarred
August 17th, 2007
I would argue that by coming to the point where he can say “I don’t get it, but that’s okay,” he probably “gets it” as well as anyone.
Emily K
August 17th, 2007
I’m a gay girl, and I don’t understand male homosexuality one bit. Just b/c we’re both labeled “gay” doesn’t mean we’ll understand eachother. but that doesn’t stop me from loving my male gay friends, either.
Lynn David
August 17th, 2007
I was going to point out the gay male equivalent of Emily’s comment… though there was a point of congruence I once had with a lesbian.
This point of “getting it” is at the heart of the problem. I don’t need someone to get why I want to have sex with a man. But I do want them to get that the same passion, feelings and even love exist in both, that is why we’re human. Unfortunately, the sexual aspect is all that much of the straight world can [or wants] to see. It’s not that they don’t “get it” or care to get it, but more that they cannot get past that. Frankenfeld seems to have found the way past that.
Timothy Kincaid
August 17th, 2007
I’m a gay girl…
eww, eww ick.
But love ya anyway
Emily K
August 17th, 2007
lol, i think for me as a queer girl, and for many straight men, it boils down to: I love girls and “everything” they have. I find absolutely nothing appealing sexually about what guys “have.” so when you have a sexual relationship with TWO guys, all of that unappealing stuff is DOUBLED! I think that’s why I seem to find more homo-hatred from straight men: they share that same opinion. But these opinions can only turn into demonization and hatred if you don’t KNOW any gay men. When you get to know the PERSON, you see that it’s not about sex. You learn to love that human being for their warm personality and witty sense of humor, or their sympathy for you when you’re in hard times, or their generosity when you’re in need. I subscribe to the theory that the more time people spend around gays, the more likely they will be to tolerate us and befriend us- they’ll understand we are human, even if they don’t understand our actions in love. Otherwise, they’ll only have the lies Paul Cameron feeds them!
love ya too, Tim
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