Why a book like the one I am writing is needed.

First of all, I would like to thank all of my readers. This is my eleventh post and I will be reaching 300 hits within this week.

It just goes to show that so many of us are interested in taking on the anti-gay industry . I am all for educating Americans about who we are but I won't do it in a way that reduces me to a beggar. "Please tolerate me" is not a phrase that will ever come out of my mouth.

I have reconciled myself to the fact that some Americans will never accept the gay community.

And that is fine.

What I am talking about through my book and blog is the fact that religious belief alone is no reason to dictate to anyone how their lives are going to be. And I as a gay man will not apologize for my desires to have a good family, children, or any of parts of that lovely American Dream that I believe so much in.

And I will not allow anyone to make me live my life based on their interpretations of how they think I live or what they think I do in the bedroom.

In accordance to that, I think we as a community need to expose the lies of James Dobson, Lou Sheldon, Peter LaBarbera, and company. We need to be unapologetically aggressive, but also show discipline and resolve.

We need to make them justify the fact that they are lying in the name of God.

But I think I can put it better through a rough excerpt of my book:

Gays and lesbians make up to two to 10 percent of the American population and come in every age and ethnic group. These are people with real lives. They work, eat, sleep, and pay bills just like everyone else. In fact, according to the 2000 Census, over 300,000 of them are raising children in this country.

But despite all of this, the United States is not educated as to who exactly they are. Many don’t know any out-of-the-closet gays and lesbians. Many who do know out-of-the-closet gays and lesbians do not take the time to learn about them or their lives.

Also, many Americans regard themselves as Christians and to many of these Christians, homosexuality is a sin. Therefore when people like Timothy Dailey and Robert Knight put forth their lies and propaganda about the gay community while at the same time claiming that they are on the side of righteousness, it is relatively easy to persuade people of faith that they are speaking the truth.

Backed by this propaganda, those who call themselves "people of faith" often repeat some of the most vicious, un-Christian lies with not only a straight face but a self assurance that what they are saying is the gospel truth:

"The "alphas" in homosexual relationships, be they men or women, are many times recruiting younger partners. A vast percentage of those who enter the homosexual life do so after having been sexually initiated by an older person of their sex – be it consensual or not – it usually has the feel of enticement or seduction." - Kevin McCullough, The ‘Gay’ Truth, May 30, 2003

"... there is an abundance of evidence that homosexual couples do not make the optimum family unit. We have also seen evidence that homosexual couples prey on young males and have in some instances adopted them in order to have unfretted access to subject them to a life of molestation and sexual abuse." - Tennessee State Representative Debra Young Maggart to a constiuent, February 25, 2006

"The newest thing in Chicago, it's becoming a trend, and you're gonna find this hard to believe...sex with infants" ... "It's not enough that they have...you know when you engage in perversion, and homosexuality is perversion, we don't hate the gays mind you, we don't hate them, we hate what they're doing...pretty soon that perversion is like addiction, it's not enough, so you need to graduate to something else. You need to move on. So now they're having sex with animals, a small group that's getting bigger, sex with infants, sex in the street in Chicago out in the open, it's just getting more and more perverted." - Guy Adams, August 2, 2006

. . . If someone wants to believe that gays and lesbians are going to hell, then that is his or her right. After all, this is America and the First Amendment guarantees anyone the right to espouse whatever beliefs they want. In this country, we have Jehovah Witnesses, Seven Day Adventists, snake handlers, Muslims, Jews, etc.

But the passage of laws is a more complicated process.

Laws are created to guard the public trust and to protect that same public from harm. Jewish people in this country cannot pass laws based upon their interpretation of the Talmud anymore than Muslims can pass laws based on their interpretation of the Koran. In that same spirit, Christians cannot pass laws in this country based on their interpretation of the Bible. Just because one’s religion tells him that homosexuality is a bad concept does not mean he can pass laws discriminating against gays and lesbians.

That is, unless he can prove that the public good is preserved by such laws.

Therefore, in order to prove that gays and lesbians should not have any protection of laws, so-called "pro-family" organizations have created a written and oral pattern of deception that is not only blatant in its attempts but shameful in its audacity. In their zeal to prove the worst about the gay community, the anti-gay industry runs roughshod over science and truth. They have created a houses of pseudo-scientific studies based on distortions, lies, headless monsters, and legitimate studies taken out of context , which are then pushed by fake experts, Ph.D.s, conservative columnists and bloggers, and ignorant people of faith all willing to sacrifice their integrity on the altar of an alleged higher calling.

And to make matters worse, they work to undermine credible information that has proven time and time again that their ideas of the gay community are fallacies.

And the effects of their propaganda campaign can only be described as damaging.

Children who tell their parents they are gay are being kicked out of their homes or shipped to "reparative therapy" camps where they are supposed to be transformed into heterosexuals because Concerned Women for America has "research" that says that homosexuality is a "destructive lifestyle."

Legislation that would keep gays safe from job-discrimination face the accusation that it is just a backdoor way to force acceptance for the "homosexual agenda" because the Family Research Council has "research" that says so.

Schools across the country are ignoring the well-being of gay students in that they are not allowed to mention the word "homosexual" in sex education classes because Timothy Dailey, Robert Knight, or Peter LaBarbera has "research" that says homosexuals are coming into schools to indoctrinate the next generation and cause them to become infected with diseases like "gay bowel syndrome."

These so-called "pro-family" organizations are using phony statistics and half truths almost on a daily basis in attempts to defeat pro gay laws, deny gay children the right to form support groups, to hinder correct safe sex information from being made public, and any other way they feel they can stop the so-called gay agenda; an agenda that does not exist.

I have always believed that the truth in every situation will come out. I also believe in sometimes giving that truth a little nudge to the light.