Milk

I saw "Milk" last night and thought it was terrific. The movie is about Harvey Milk, a gay rights activist in the 70s who was the first openly gay man elected to public office. The movie tells the story of how he fought to become an elected official and then to pass a civil rights ordinance forbidding employers from firing workers based on their sexual orientation. It passed in 1978. It's interesting that a similar bill was passed in Maine and survived a referendum to repeal in 2005. It just takes longer in some places, I guess.

Some of the discussions that Jess and I had about it afterward brought to mind arguments from Keith Olbermann's rant in favor of gay marriage. The main question Olbermann poses in this clip is why do people oppose gay marriage. This movie certainly gives a few answers to that question and they are not pretty, however justified the so-called moral majority may feel in having those opinions.

One interesting catch-22 is that some people who espouse anti-gay opinions do so because they believe that homosexuality is anti-family. However, the same people often think that gay marriage and gay adoption should never be allowed. How can homosexuals ever be pro-family if they are not allowed to have one?

Myth: male pedophiles who pray on young boys are gay. Fact: pedophilia is a sexual orientation in itself. These men who like boys, are not gay. They do not like men, they like boys. And before you say "Well, if it's a sexual orientation, then why can't we discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation to keep pedophiles out of schools?" The answer to that is that we can only really punish people for their actions. That's the way our justice system works. If we could punish people for being pedophiles, then we should also lock up everyone who shows a hint of the propensity to kill another human being. Those with violent tendencies who have committed no crimes would all be behind bars. But our society does not work that way. We can only punish people for acts of pedophilia.

Many people believe that the "homosexual lifestyle" is lascivious and that gay people are more promiscuous. They believe that allowing gay people be around children (especially as teachers) will encourage children to follow that lifestyle. Some even believe that gay teachers try to recruit students to become gay and lead the "homosexual lifestyle." This is another reason not to allow homosexuals to adopt children. In truth, gay men and lesbians are as varied as any other subgroup in our culture. You are just as likely to meet a raging flamboyant queen as you are to meet a masculine, meat and potato eating, football loving homosexual man. Homosexuals are not all just one type, they run the gamut. Also, as Harvey Milk once said, if children followed the lifestyle of their teachers, their would a whole lot more nuns around. Gay men do not recruit others to be gay. Of course, understanding that requires understanding the fundamental fact that being gay is not a choice. People are born with a sexual orientation. To those of you who don't believe this, I ask, when did you decide to be heterosexual?

Lastly, there are those who believe that because homosexuality is forbidden by the bible, it should be forbidden by the laws of man. The bible condones slavery, says that women must remain separate from the rest of society when they are menstruating, forbids the eating of shellfish, and proscribes the touching of the skin of a dead pig (tell that to the New England Patriots!). The book of Leviticus, which most clearly states the proscription of homosexuality, was originally written between 500-450 BC as a book of rules for the priests of the Levite house of Israel. They were not written as a guide for gentiles 2400+ years later. Christians should also allow for the fact that not everyone believes as they do, and just because they believe something is wrong, doesn't mean there should be a law forbidding it. In our civil society, it is generally viewed that less laws is better than more. If you believe homosexuality is forbidden by God, don't practice it. Those Christians out there should understand that the only judge for all of us is God. "Vengance is mine, sayeth the Lord."