Comments about ‘Gay-rights group planning '09 drives’

The gay communities attempt to turn a perverted lifestyle into a civil rights issue in order to join the mainstream will always be ineffectual.

Why not give "rights" to all socially deviant behavior. We could make sure that drug abusers, burglars, and convicts have extra "rights" too. And how about the plain old stupid people out there, what about their "rights"?

Bigotry in any form is wrong.

Gays have every right of every other person in this country (and state). Someone please tell me why they need more rights? And someone tell me why gays are so special? Of all the people who might need some extra help (mentally handicapped, physically handicapped, etc), how is it this group gets all the attention?

I guess we all should change our lifestyle, and become gay, that woulld at least cut the birth rate. We would just need to get a better health system in place so we could have free medical help with our AIDS problems. Ya good idea.

As a proud gay woman, I am so thrilled with the progress on these issues this year. Keep fighting the good fight! Change is coming to Utah like it or not.

Either your question is disingenuous or you live under a rock? No, the question is "Why not the same rights that you enjoy, and are so oblivious, that you take them for granted and yet deny another human being the same."

Because their families and loved ones are used as the basis of discrimination, they are asking to be protected to have the same rights, nothing that you don't already enjoy.

The right to work free of discrimination.
The right to housing free of discrimination.
The right to guarantee access to inheritance without court challenges by unwanted family members.
The right to visit your loved one in a hospital.
The right to access health insurance for your family, like your co-workers.

When you claim you don't see why they need help and these things don't happen, you make yourself appear either ignorant on the issues or void of any compassion for your fellow human beings.

Why aren't you happy?
Why "bug" us?
Why tell-the- world?
Why not let it be?

Now caan't we just dawn-our-gay apparell and stop all this nonsense?

I think the antagonism of those posting comments against those fighting for gay rights is revealing. I would hope that we could be more supportive of our gay brothers and sisters. I believe they cannot choose to be heterosexual, just like I did not choose to be heterosexual. I remember being attracted to girls when I was 4 years old. It seems obvious that I was born that way. I certainly did not make a choice regarding my sexual orientation at the age of 4. It seems the issue is that homosexuals do not want to be discriminated against based on their sexuality. Even my Church (LDS) has indicated that it supports certain rights for homosexuals. Why should it be perfectly legal to terminate an employee simpley because that employee is gay?

Change is coming to Utah, and we don't like it. Why should our opinion be of any less value than someone who believes in so called alternative lifestyles? I don't know of any law that prevents a gay person from getting gainful employment. I don't know of any law that always a store, hospital, doctor, attorney, school, theater, dealership, agency, or even a church that has a policy to deny entry because a person's gay. Exactly what rights are you denied if you're gay?
And you, Olive, as a proud gay woman, do you respect people who are proud heterosexuals who are not thrilled with what they perceive to be assaults on an age(s) old institution, namely marriage? Utah has a unique culture, how supportive would you be if well funded activists in a gay community were trying to change the gay community to be more like Utah? (LDS missionaries)
See, these arguments, mine included, can be flipped around all too easy. In the end, it is soley a matter of what a person chooses to put their faith in. Intolerance? Gay people can be intolerent. Change? Who's changing & why?

RE: "Why More Rights?"

Sir/Madam, you already have each of those rights that you list in your post. Please don't say that you don't have them. Yes, I'm an attorney, and I know the law.

Your post implies that HIV/AIDS is limited to the gay community. What rock have you been living under? The HIV transmission rates among young people and minorities in the U.S. is increasing at a dramatic rate. What about Africa - the majority of those suffering under the AIDS pandemic are heterosexual.

When HIV/AIDS was first identified, Christian preachers and groups stated that it was God's wrath upon gays. It's pretty clear that HIV/AIDS is a disease that can afflict all, regardless of race, economic standing, sexual orientation, gender, etc.

In response to previous posters that challenge with the statement "What agenda?"

"Equality Utah, fresh off a series of Capitol Hill defeats, on Wednesday rolled out a post-Legislature AGENDA..."

The reason that this group is dangerous to the cause of marriage is not that their unions threaten mine, heaven knows the 98% of us that are heterosexual are doing far more damage to marriage than the GLBT groups, it is because they are forcing us to seperate the civil legal state sanctioned union from the religious union. We would be more inclined to opt for a religious union that has no legal bindings with the state and avoid the legal entanglements of a civil union while assuaging our "guilt" of having a non "God" sanctioned union. I believe that this is already an issue and the decoupling of the two unions will further that trend. The GLBT groups are organized, funded, and motivated to further this agenda, which makes them dangerous. If it were the poodle owners society persuing this course of action, they would be dangerous.

This isn't about being anti-gay, This is about preserving, as the ideal, the institution of marriage and the family.

It's about the forced acceptance of an immoral lifestyle. Dangerous stuff.

I take issue with these people of faith who are claiming oppression because they do not believe God approves of me. I am not supporting these laws to make you love me. I am supporting these laws to keep you from lynching me.

Believe what you want. But since when does you believing I'm naughty justify you using the law as a whip? It would be one thing if you were citing some sort of measurable harm that me being attracted to men imposes on you. Problem is, there isn't one.

God and I are on good terms. Trust me. Don't claim you can use laws to hurt me because Jesus gave you a permission slip.

The gays just want to legalize immorality so they can justify what they are doing. If you want to be gay, be gay. Just don't force it on everyone else. Don't stuff it down my children's throats in the public school system either. I'm tired of my kids having to sit in a college class at the U and be indoctrinated about alternative life styles. If any church tried to preach doctrine like the gays preach their lifestyle--the church would get sued by the ACLU. Go back in the closet.

PDX wrote:



I'm certain that I've been taught by my HR department that it is actually legal under state and federal law to discriminate based on sexual orientation. Am I right or wrong about that? If it is actually legal to do this, does anybody have a legitamate arument in support of work related discrimination against homosexuals based solely on their sexual orientation? If so, does that mean it's okay for a manager who is homosexual to discriminate against me soley because I'm heterosexual?

No one is trying to take away your religious ceremonies. The State is not a religious entity. The state has an obligation to treat all citizens fairly. Your own statements recognize the irrationality of at least one common argument against gay marriage (i.e., they threaten individual marriages), but you go on to argue, irrationally, that separating state-granted and religious-granted unions is bad for us? What if I don't want a religious marriage ceremony - should the state tell me I have to have one anyway?

Come on, in most countries the government does not bar anyone from having a religious marriage ceremony, but they don't recognize them under state law, either. They only recognize marriages that have been properly filed with the state. People sign on the dotted line, it's witnessed, and then filed. Then many couples head off to their church for God's blessing. God may care to bless this marriage but not that one, but the State has no business discriminating like that.

For an "Attorney" you don't seem very versed in Utah Law.

I worked for a local company for two years with glowing performance reviews every six months. One of my coworkers felt it was their "Christian-Duty" to inform the company owner that I was gay. He made comments to several people that he "did not want any of 'those people' working for him" and I was fired.

Based on one comment by a coworker, I went from a trusted and respected employee to one of "those people." The Utah Labor Commission told me that according to Utah Law that their hands were tied - but, if I had been fired for my race, gender and even my "religious affiliation" they would have been able to file a complaint against the employer. They referred be to a lawyer, but I decided to move on.

So, contrary to your assertion as a "lawyer," Utah does not offer workplace protections. Also, there would be no need for the "Common Ground" bills to secure all of those rights and protections if Utah Law already offered them.

Yes, and more. It's about enacting a protected class - effctively creating a superiority - and giving special priveledges to a 1-2% vocal portion of the population.

It is also another assault on civilization by nihilists who wish to destroy human culture, ie. marriage, morality, rationality, self-responsibility.