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- Newsgroups: alt.rush-limbaugh,alt.fan.rush-limbaugh,alt.politics.clinton,alt.politics.bush,alt.politics.homosexuality
- Path: sparky!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!ennews!anasaz!briand
- From: briand@anasazi.com (Brian Douglass)
- Subject: Re: Lifestyle Choices (was Re: Sexuality)
- Organization: Anasazi Inc Phx Az USA
- Distribution: usa
- Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 19:19:42 GMT
- Message-ID: <1992Dec31.191942.9665@anasazi.com>
- References: <1992Dec30.191743.7958@asl.dl.nec.com> <1992Dec30.234500.21163@anasazi.com> <1992Dec31.005642.14893@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov>
- Sender: usenet@anasazi.com (Usenet News)
- Lines: 67
-
- In article <1992Dec31.005642.14893@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov> fogarty@sir-c.jpl.nasa.gov (Tim Fogarty) writes:
- >
- >In article <1992Dec30.234500.21163@anasazi.com>, briand@anasazi.com
- >(Brian Douglass) writes:
- >|>
- >|>>In article <1992Dec30.185545.26789@cbnewsj.cb.att.com>
- >|>>ecl@cbnewsj.cb.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) writes:
- >|>>
- >|>>>All people are asking is that unless you can come up with some
- >|>>>*secular* reason for why their lifestyle choice is bad, you grant
- >|>>>them the same rights they are willing to grant you: the right to
- >|>>>live their life without persecution.
- >|>
- >|>Tell that to a smoker. Clearly this is a lifestyle choice, and yet
- >|>non-smokers have persecuted them out of most public places. Why? Because
- >|>non-smokers find smoking offensive, smelly, and possibly dangerous to their
- >|>health. But in this battle the rights of a clear minority, have had little
- >|>weight in comparison to the greater good of the public. That is the rights
- >|>of the majority have been deemed more important than the rights of a
- >|>minority.
- >|>
- >
- >Read the first part again ! "unless you can come up with some *secular*
- >reasons".
-
- That was not the point I was addressing. The point is that the public and
- government CAN discriminate against a segment of the population based on
- lifestyle choices. Smoker's being an example.
-
- >You have come up with some secular reasons why smokers are
- >discriminated against. And most people would support this. The question
- >for Mr Douglass was and still is "Can you come up with some secular
- >(non-religious) reasons to justify discrimination against homosexuals ?"
-
- Homosexuals are currently discriminated from donating blood. As are IV
- drug users, people who pay for sex, have recently visited certain
- countries, etc. Because as a group these lifestyle choices present a public
- health danger if they were allowed to donate. Therefore, blood banks are
- required to screen and turn away these people, as well as laws now exist
- in most states making it a criminal offense (I believe felony here in AZ) to
- lie about any of this conditions during screening and donate.
-
- >How does granting equal protection to homosexuals impact the greater good
- >of the public ?
-
- Why is it necessary? My employer has no idea nor needs to know my sexual
- preferences, attitudes, choices. Why must homosexuality have protection?
- Must blonds next have protection because some hair-brained scientist shows
- that on average they have lower IQs? Where does it stop?
-
- Discrimination in the work place based on anything other than job
- qualifications, is discrimination. Why must we pigeon hole everyone in
- society into these little minorities? That does nothing by fractionalize
- society and encourage stereotyping, and the inherit prejudices that go
- along with that. We've all heard the stories "Oh, he's black, he must have
- got here on Affirmative Action." "Oh, look how sexy she dress, she must
- have got there on her back." "Oh, she's the bosses daughter, she got her
- job from nepotism."
-
- Everytime we label another group of people under the law, we implicitly make
- them seperate but equal, and that isn't equal.
-
- >
- >--
- >Tim Fogarty
- >Sys Man and Sys Admin for the EGSE in the POCC at JSC for SRL-1, STS-59
- >FOGARTY@SIR-C.JPL.NASA.GOV
-