This is why I love Dear Abby, she won't back down from a homophobic reader

[LynneSin]

http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050511/LIFE01/505110302/1088

Homosexual genetics impossible to ignore
05/11/2005

DEAR ABBY: In a recent column you advised the mother of a girl who had confided that she is gay and wants to come out that homosexuality has "nothing to do with parenting and everything to do with genetics." If you don't retract that statement, you are a mouthpiece for the gay and lesbian crowd.

Leonard in Lynchburg (lms note: Ironic the reader is from Lynchburg Virginia - is this one of Falwell's cronies?)

DEAR LEONARD: I write what I believe. Homosexuality is a variant of sexual orientation. Those who claim it is "unnatural" should heed Dr. Joan Roughgarden, a biologist at Stanford University with a Ph.D. from Harvard, who states that more than 300 vertebrate species have been found to practice homosexuality. And Italian researcher Andrea Camperio-Ciani of the University of Padua notes that research findings point to there being more than one "gay gene."

[ET Awful]

1. Hehehe.

I probably would have been a bit more vitriolic than her and said something along the lines of "if you don't retract your statemetns, you are a mouthpiece for the uninformed, hate-filled, bigoted crowd."

:)

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

37. The freeper TONE is something else! Who does he think he is?

"If you don't retract that statement, you are a mouthpiece for the gay and lesbian crowd."

Back in the day they were called "nigger-lovers".

[tjwmason]

2. But being gay IS A CHOICE which some perverts make

That pseudo-scientist from the left-wing ivory-tower at Stanford and Harvard is just peddling a myth designed to satisfy the radical fag activists.

[luvLLB]

21. Let's see. Choose a life full of discrimination, hatred, bigotry,

fear. A life where you can't be who you really are, and can't let anyone know who you love. Can't make medical decisions or even plan a retirement with the one you love. Get the looks even when you go out to eat, stay at a motel, go to a show. Yeah, great choice. My sibling is gay, and always has been. That's IS the way she was born. Thankfully, we as a family, love her just the way she is. And may I add, we love her SO just as much.

[tjwmason]

29. You do realise I was being sarcastic?

I am delighted that you are loving and accepting of your sister and her S.O., as are my family (though no S.O. at the present - despite outrageous flirting with all of the gorgeous men here).

[luvLLB]

31. LOL o.k....my bad. It's just that, ya never know.

[beyurslf]

23. Maybe you should put at the end of that so we don't think

you are being a hateful rotten homophobe who belongs on the freeper site. :)

[progmom]

26. Hey TJ? People might think you're being serious here.

Which I know you're not. ;)

[tjwmason]

30. Damn - you guessed

I was being as serious here as when I said I'd eaten your glasses.

So a big note to anybody reading what I said above.

That was sarcastic, I tried to make it so o.t.t. that people would realise - but when there are 'folk' like Fred Phelps around I suppose that one can't really get much further o.t.t.

[Demit]

3. I like that she just ignored his baiting, and gave a factual answer.

A lot of people still follow Dear Abby, who has always been a font of common sense.

[terrya]

4. It's NOT a choice, goddammit!!!

Good for Dear Abby to say that. It gets fucking tiresome to say over and over and over again that it's NOT something to choose. The only choice one makes is whether to act on your same-sex attraction. You can be happy and fully accepting of who you are and to find and meet that man or woman who enriches your life and completes you...as I happily (and finally) did. Or you can choose not to act on your orientation. You can NOT become heterosexual. The idea that one can join an "ex-gay" group to become heterosexual is a sick, sick, damaging lie and a desperately cruel hoax on those gay and lesbian folks who are conflicted about their orientations.

[Midlodemocrat]

16. Well said, Terrya. It is not a choice.

Anymore than eyecolor or hair color or gender is a choice.

[Patiod]

27. Not to mention a cruel hoax on heteros they try to marry

Have a cousin and a former boss who married guys who were desperately trying to "go straight", both very religious (Catholic). Both ended up divorced, and shaken by the whole thing.

I use that arguement all the time with unreasonable religious zealots. "Okay, let's assume for a moment that gay people can 'change'. Would you prefer your sister/daughter to marry someone born straight, or someone who had 'changed'?"

They rarely have a knee-jerk reaction or Scriptural reply to that one.

[terrya]

32. It's unfair to everyone involved.

Yes, Patiod. That's exactly the point. And it's tragic what happened to your cousin and that boss. Hardly a display of "family values", eh?

[radwriter0555]

5. Well, if being gay is a choice, then being straight is a choice.

Gay people are as turned off by the opposite sex, as straights are turned off by same sex.

You can't choose who you're innately attracted to... it just is and these fundie freaks need to mind their own damn business.

[newfaceinhell]

7. i've often wondered- are the people who say it's a choice bisexuals...

...who at some point "chose" only to take an interest in the opposite sex? That's the only way such a position could make any sense to me; I know I never "chose" to be straight...:shrug:

[Bridget Burke]

9. Or gays who are Going.Through.The.Motions with their wives....

Who wonder what might be missing in their lives. Or just take care of the kids & try not to think about it.

Until the guys get busted picking up an undercover cop in the park.

[redqueen]

14. Something like that... has to be.

How can one not look inward and take note of their own experiences discovering their sexuality? I know I didn't make a choice to be hetero...

[radwriter0555]

17. well that's just IT. We can't CHOOSE whom we're innately attracted to..

we can choose personality types, but when it comes to deep, true physical attraction and intimacy, we're left with our DNA to make that decision for us...

I think that people who are bi-sexual are the luckiest of all... look a the wide and diverse cross section of humans they have the opportunity to find true love with!!!!!

After all, it IS LOVE, actually.

[Fleshdancer]

25. that is an interesting question...

I never thought about it that way before but if your sexual preference is not 100% homosexual or 100% heterosexual, then it could definately lead to the false conclusion that all people choose their orientation. Interesting.

[Spinzonner]

6. Ok, who's been recruting all those other species

to the homosexual lifestyle ?

[LynneSin]

8. The Box-Turtles, the Goats, the Sponges - I think it was Cornyn & Santorum

they seem to be obsessed about it

[redqueen]

15. ... but the mules ... they're only for straight sex?

Do I have this right? The fundie whacko mindset is SO confusing.

[Rabrrrrrr]

10. Go Abby!!

And really, why is it bad to be a mouthpiece for the gay and lesbian crowd? Leonard says it like it's something bad.

[LiberallyInclined]

12. Leonard doesn't like to think about where those gay mouths have been-

or-
maybe he doesn't like that he likes to think about it...

[Rabrrrrrr]

18. That's it! He wants it, but his church has made him feel bad about wanting

it.

And, he also feels that homosexual sex should stay in the clubhouses and other places where white men hang out and have sex outside of their marriages, because when you do it at a clubhouse or the gym or on a hunting trip, it's not "homosexual" or "gay", it's just "male bonding" and perfectly okay then.

[chenGOD]

11. I was gonna post this earlier..but had no time.

It's great. The end point where she says "I stand by my reply" is perfect.

Are you sure he's from Virginia? He could be from Lynchburg Tennessee.

[flvegan]

13. Dear Abby: Why do you hate America?

[enigmatic]

19. What a mo-ron....

"Leonard in Lynchburg" needs to cobble a few more brain cells to get up to primate status..

[crispini]

20. Go Dear Abby!

Growing up with my gay little brother made me understand that it is, indeed, not a choice. He (and I say this with a smile) was the queerest eight year old on the planet. The entire family knew he was gay before he did. He came out at 18 and we all just went, "Meh. This is news?"

[cassandra uprising]

22. Did anyone catch this The Swede study about pheromones?

http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/05/09/pheromones.study.reut/

snip
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- A compound taken from male sweat stimulates the brains of gay men and straight women but not heterosexual men, raising the possibility that homosexual brains are different, researchers in Sweden reported on Monday.

It also strengthens the evidence that humans respond to pheromones -- compounds known to affect animal behavior, especially mating behavior, but whose role in human activity has been questioned.

[ghostsofgiants]

24. But will that even matter to fundies?

They've never seemed to let science get in the way of their bullshit before.

[cassandra uprising]

28. My point is that the scientific community

is gaining an arsenal of research that proves what gay folks have known since like forever, that being gay is not a choice.

It helps in the battle for equal rights.

[ghostsofgiants]

34. That's true

And very good news.

[dean_dem]

33. It's been proven that homosexuality is not a choice.

Being a close-minded, bigoted asshole, however...

[LynneSin]

36. I disagree...

if you're raised in an environment with close-minded bigoted assholes and have nothing but mainstream media & the church feeding you crap, then you're probably going to end up the same.

I saw this only because I grew up in an area just like that but somehow I managed to escape!

[dean_dem]

38. You're probably right...

but it still doesn't absolve someone of their own bigotry. Ignorance is ignorance, and deep down there is still a matter of choice.

[curse10]

35. That's great- I hope she enlightened a few people

her reader base is huge :-)