I nearly make it out, but John Derbyshire pulls me back in

Yeah I know I said that I was taking a break. But I just can't resist responding when I read stupid shit.

For example this lovely piece by John Derbyshire:

All that aside, though, I can't say I care much about homosexuality one way or the other. If I examine my own motivations for saying anything at all on this subject, the main thing I am aware of is just contrarian cussedness. I get so goddam sick of all the movies, TV shows, and, yes, e-mails telling me how goddam wonderful homosexuals are, and how goddam normal homosexuality is, and how goddam cruel and bigoted and intolerant it must be not to whole-heartedly approve of homosexuals, and cheer them on, and applaud the things they do. Well, I know myself well enough to be sure that I am not cruel, or bigoted, or intolerant. Nor am I aware of anyone who knows me that believes me to be any of those things. Like Thomas More: "I wish none harm, I say none harm, I do none harm." Do as you please in the privacy of your chambers, but for heaven's sake stop pushing it in my face, stop telling me how wonderful you are, stop lying about the fact that the things you do have health consequences (were in fact responsible for introducing a horrible plague into our society), stop mucking up my language by introducing illiteracies like "homophobe" and imposing the stain of salacity on perfectly decent old English words like "gay", stop telling me that the things I say might be taken as incitement to crimes of violence. (What words that anyone says about anything might not be thus taken by some lunatic somewhere? What would we be permitted to talk about, on that criterion?) And don't even think about proselytizing your "lifestyle" to my kids.

I don't know Mr. Derbyshire well enough to know for sure whether or not he is cruel, bigoted, or intolerant. But from what I am reading, he is ignorant.

Consider these facts:

As of 1990, 6 million to 14 million children in the United States were living with a gay or lesbian parent. (National Adoption Information Clearinghouse, a service of the U.S. Administration for Children and Families.),

Same-sex couples raising chidren live in 96% of all counties nationwide in the United States. (2000 U.S. Census analyses by the Urban Institute and Human Rights Campaign),

As many as 7.2 million Americans under age 20 are lesbian or gay,

45% of gay males and 20% of lesbians experience physical or verbal assaultin high school; 28% of these young people feel forced to drop out of schooldue to harassment based on sexual orientation.

But yet and still, people like Derbyshire are obsessed with defining the issue of sexual orienation to that of kinky bedroom habits.

That, my friends, goes beyond hatred. It is more diabolical than hatred. It is willful ignorance.

Of course Derbyshire can think of homosexuality in any way that he likes but the kicker is that he seems to demand that those of us who are lgbts conduct our lives in accordance to his ignorance.

And that will probably be the final fight over sexual orientation. Behind all of the lies about dangerous health consequences, behind all of the Biblical admonitions, behind all of the deceptions and distortions are people who cannot accept the fact that being an lgbt goes beyond sexual intercourse and stereotypes about leather and sadomaschism.

So rather than to accept the fact that maybe they are wrong, they rail against the rest of the world for daring to interrupt their stupid notions.

Well they, Mr. Derbyshire included, need to get over themselves. No matter how freaky they try to make us out to be, we are normal people who lead normal (and in my case - boring) lives. And we should not have to edit out any part of these lives.

The fact of the matter is that no one can tell the story of lgbt lives better than those who are living them. In matters of the media, we have every right to push for positive and correct stories about who we are. And we have every right to influence all facets of this country, from the media to our legislative bodies.

That is what being an American is all about

And one last thing to Mr. Derbyshire: if by chance any of your kids turn out to be gay, don't blame us. Be a good parent. Listen to that child, don't make assumptions, and by all means don't desert your child.

Maybe you will learn something for a change.