2012 U.S. Presidential Election

[mattbcl]

I think Roy brings up a valid point. One does not need to be open about one's sexuality in order to serve in any position, either in the public or private sectors. My grandmother had a delightful phrase regarding this: "I wish homophobes would stop flaming gay people. And I wish gay people would stop flaming, period!" To translate, she had absolutely no issue with anybody choosing how to live their own lives and how to conduct their personal business - she only took offense when they shoved it in the faces of others. I think you would find that a lot of society (including gays) would tend to agree with that position... after all, how do you think they feel when the exaggerated merits of a straight lifestyle are shoved down their throats?

This is the argument, as it should be standing on its own merits: Why is it a person's sexual orientation should be considered to have any measure or impact on his/her ability to perform the functions of a task/job/assignment? Where is the enlightenment that tells an employer (up to and including the armed services) that this subject should matter exactly as much as the applicant's hair color and whether he/she likes to cut a piece of toast across or diagonally?

Logically, it should not.

But that particular argument gets lost in the rhetoric that abounds during election years. If a candidate stands up for gays, he's accused of having no moral standards and he's painted as being unable to say no to his own kids. If the candidate instead says that he does not support homosexuality as a lifestyle, the ramifications are no less dire - he's called a homophobe and a bigot, and he's branded for life as an out-of-touch, intolerant malcontent.

With regards to the Rick Perry ad, I don't necessarily want to think of him being in the latter category, but I do think he's pandering to the people that occupy it. And that's going to turn the rest of the country off. I don't know where in the world he thinks this "war on religion" is happening, besides in the confines of his own mind, but as with anything else, there will be those that stand up and thump their chests and say, "Damn right!" without really thinking it through. This is one of the drawbacks of having a governmental system and a society like that of the U.S.; you're free to think what you like, and you're free to think what someone else tells you to.

Still wouldn't trade it for anything else, though.