Being gay is a fetish.

[Hatshepsut]

In contrast...my claims are not arguments of convenience to justify whatever opinion I have at the moment...

Makes us strange bed-fellows as I don't buy the gay agenda yet I avoid the thoughtless whisk broom of intolerance the Evangelical wings so lovingly fondle. We've had ugly official attitudes toward gays, with J. Edgar Hoover at the FBI snorting "homosexual perversion" and the American Psychiatric Assn. defining it as ailment until DSM III-R. Seems we've had small problems with private violence as well. Bullying in the schools, local college jocks on "faggot-barking" missions Friday nights for years before the cops finally stepped on it.

But yes, we are sadly stuck on whatever's fashionable this Tuesday, with George F. Will "grievance groups" now numbered in the hundreds bellowing for legislative hay to drop into the trough. Yet even here, I think we need to distinguish between laws extending liberty, such as gay marriage, which are desirable in a free land, and those that make questionable political allocations, such as municipal hiring and benefits quotas.

....you get Medieval Europe; Witch-hunts, executions over petty crimes, irrational laws. You also get, which is still happening, an open denial of scientific evidence that actually puts us in danger (such as denying global warming). ... As Richard Dawkins said, human rights and modern morality have come on over centuries of rational discussion and logical debate...

Ahh...King Richard Dawkins in armor on high horse at the standard of Modern Morality, giving the cry "Climate change deniers!" as his army surges forth to battle for Right...with logical debate? Since Magna Carta when have rights ever come about through a rational process? We've had rare moments of sanity, perhaps at the UN just after WWII, but this is a messy arena indeed. I can respect Mr. Dawkins opinions on biology. I doubt he's the best historian or sociologist, however.