I always get a little sad in the face of homophobia.

[judecorp]

There was a post on strangeland.net recently about Brokeback Mountain which sparked a conversation, of course, on the morality (or lack thereof) of homosexuality. At one point, the original poster answered a comment and stated that he believed homosexuality is wrong (which is fine) and that it should be re-criminalized. And I was just so stunned

Comments

[estrange]

That's horrible. :(

[judecorp]

Yuck.

[poopsmoothie]

funny how people criminalize other people for acts that hurt no one.

[judecorp]

I agree that there is a ridiculous amount of criminalization - but I think that's probably the extent of our agreement. IIRC, you want to close all the prisons, something I don't advocate in the slightest.

[oxlahun]

Re-criminalized? I think it's still illegal in a lot of places.

A few years back, somebody pointed out that alcohol was clearly the root of a lot of social problems in this country. They got a lot of folks to agree with them, and managed to get the stuff banned. Funny thing, though: it didn't work. We still had social problems. Arguably, more of them. Plus we had a lot of pissed off people. Turns out morality is something you have to cultivate, not legislate.

Personally, I think being a bigoted moronic asshole is clearly immoral (far more so that someone who falls in love with a person instead of their complementary genitalia, anyway), and should be punishable by something that just barely slips under the "cruel and unusual" line in the Eighth Amendment, including but not limited to removing these people from positions of authority and the gene pool.

For some reason, nobody has put me in charge of that yet.

[judecorp]

Well, I'm pretty sure that when the US Supreme Court ruled that the right to privacy overrode states' sodomy laws, all sodomy laws had to come off the books. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that's the dilly-yo.

I know that being a bigoted, moronic asshole is certainly against MY moral code. Bring it!

[vorpalbla]

Look, there are probably people in this here country, especially but not exclusively in "flyover land", who would vote for the burning of witches, had they the opportunity and if their local clergy endorsed it. There are extremist Christians just like extremist Muslims, they just do the media thing differently. And they don't HAVE to behead hostages or bomb trains and buses because they can exert so much democratic power--but I suspect some would.

And sadly, I can't agree with the definition in your userpic. For some, yeah, the insecurity plays a part, but for others gay=evil is simply an axiom with which they've been brought up.

[judecorp]

Is "just growing up" with an axiom enough of a reason to keep it going? It saddens me that all people don't analyze and make their own judgments on things they were raised with or heard as children.

I grew up with a lot of racist jokes/comments. Does that justify any racist behavior on my part? Is there not a level of insecurity behind all hate speech/crimes?

[vorpalbla]

Justify, no. Sad, yes. Surprising, not really.

[mantis_tobogan]

oh, he didn't mean homosexual ladies. everyone knows that shouldn't be illegal. i mean, really... he's attracted to the ladies... and also probably believes that everyone should be legally obliged to behave as he does. that means that he understands ladies lovin' ladies... unless they're lovin' on fatties or uglies. that's still illegal. it's certainly got to be in the bible.

[judecorp]

It clearly mentions "no fatties" in the Bible. Right there in Leviticus. "Do not lie with fatties, it is an abomination."