Do gays have equal rights?

[Moontanman]

I am very sorry, the quote I used was the official release. the fact the two men were gay was withheld by their request. I was privy to the fact of their being gay because i am a member of the church that issued the bulletin due to the perceived nature of the threat being leveled against gays. The news letter was a warning for gay members of the church to beware due to gang threats against gays resulting from charges being pressed by the two men. I released info i shouldn't have. i didn't release the info out of malice for anyone I had more info than the news release but i didn't quote it. Since being gay wasn't supposed to be part of the release I am going to take it off the forum.... please disregard it....

[InfiniteNow]

Originally Posted by Moontanman

should any citizen have to put up with being beaten just because he or she is homosexual?

No, in much the same way that no citizen should have to put up with being beaten just for being black, or asian, or for having the wrong color hair. However, I'm curious about what your question is, since our laws seem pretty clear that citizens shouldn't have to put up with being beaten up for any reason whatsoever... It's against the law to assault anyone, regardless if they are gay or straight, white or black, red headed or brunette.

Can you clarify your question, mate?

[Moontanman]

Yes the laws are clear but the way they are enforced are often much less than clear. I can remember a time, not more than a couple decades ago when a homosexual could be dragged off the street and rapped beaten and even killed and the perpetrators would get off with not much more than a slap on the wrist. often just saying a gay came on to you was good enough to get you off charges of assault. Just saying gays have equal rights isn't the same as actually having them. This situation is not unusual, straight men, usually in a group go out to find a gay to beat up. Often luring them away by pretending to be gay too and then beating them to an inch of their life, often after orally raping them, and leaving them in some lonely place outside of town. In many cases deaths have resulted from this behavior. such extremes are rare these days but can gays really be said to have the same rights as straights if they have to worry about being beaten just because they are homosexual?

[Larv]

Originally Posted by Moontanman

This situation is not unusual, straight men, usually in a group go out to find a gay to beat up. Often luring them away by pretending to be gay too and then beating them to an inch of their life, often after orally raping them, and leaving them in some lonely place outside of town. In many cases deaths have resulted from this behavior. such extremes are rare these days but can gays really be said to have the same rights as straights if they have to worry about being beaten just because they are homosexual?

Yes, this does happen, and it is dreadful. But I also think it is dreadful to beat up women and children just for being women and children, and that happens, too. Indeed I do not want another homosexual to be beaten up for anything. But I suspect that homosexuals regard themselves as especially discriminated against, when, in fact, they are not—not if you look at the history of abuse on blacks, Latinos, women, children, old people, and the mentally infirm. And statistics show that ones who are the most often beaten up are young, straight, white males.

Having said that, I’ll answer this thread’s opening question: Do gays have equal rights? The answer is plainly YES! And when someone comes along and says that they don’t have the right to get married, I say this is a bogus claim. There are no laws in any state that specifically prohibit gays from getting married. Our marriage laws carry forward the common understanding that any man of legal age can marry any woman of legal age, providing they not siblings, not mentally insane, and not dead.

[Moontanman]

Originally Posted by Larv

Yes, this does happen, and it is dreadful. But I also think it is dreadful to beat up women and children just for being women and children, and that happens, too. Indeed I do not want another homosexual to be beaten up for anything. But I suspect that homosexuals regard themselves as especially discriminated against, when, in fact, they are not—not if you look at the history of abuse on blacks, Latinos, women, children, old people, and the mentally infirm. And statistics show that ones who are the most often beaten up are young, straight, white males.

Of course it's dreadful to be beat up, no one should have to put up with being beaten but women and children aren't simply tracked down on the street and beaten because they are women and children. women and children aren't denied the right to mind their own business like these guys were. I think your statistics are wrong larv, if you checked you would find that the young, straight, white males are the one most often doing the beating not getting beaten.

Having said that, I’ll answer this thread’s opening question: Do gays have equal rights? The answer is plainly YES! And when someone comes along and says that they don’t have the right to get married, I say this is a bogus claim. There are no laws in any state that specifically prohibit gays from getting married. Our marriage laws carry forward the common understanding that any man of legal age can marry any woman of legal age, providing they not siblings, not mentally insane, and not dead.

Larv, this thread is not about gay marriage, if you must post your crazy gay marriage BS please do it in the proper thread....

[TheBigDog]

Originally Posted by Moontanman

Larv, this thread is not about gay marriage, if you must post your crazy gay marriage BS please do it in the proper thread....

It is about rights. Larv is answering that question in broader terms. Do you consider marriage to be a "right" which gay's are are already receiving equal treatment, or that it is not a right, and therefore not open for discussion? If you want to talk about specific rights then be specific.

Bill

[Moontanman]

Originally Posted by TheBigDog

It is about rights. Larv is answering that question in broader terms. Do you consider marriage to be a "right" which gay's are are already receiving equal treatment, or that it is not a right, and therefore not open for discussion? If you want to talk about specific rights then be specific.

Bill

This thread is about the gay bashing incident I quoted at the beginning, not gay marriage. There are already threads about gay marriage and they are going no where. If you want to discuss gay marriage please do it in the proper threads.

[Cedars]

Originally Posted by Moontanman

This thread is about the gay bashing incident I quoted at the beginning, not gay marriage. There are already threads about gay marriage and they are going no where. If you want to discuss gay marriage please do it in the proper threads.

Fine. But no where in the article does it say these men who were beaten are homosexuals.

There is one statement "“This is our town,” one of the suspects had said, before kicking a victim one last time and leaving, according to the account witnesses gave police."" The victims names are not mentioned. Their race is not mentioned. We have no idea whether these victims were from the same town or another town. Gangs fight over turf. We have no idea what was meant by the statement alleged to have been said by one of the perpetrators of this assault.

Do you have another source which verifies this had anything to do with 'gay bashing'?

http://www.starnewsonline.com/articl...owntown-street

[Zythryn]

Even if they are homosexuals, I don't see any link to them not being given the same rights as other Americans.
They were beat up, the police responded, got leads, tracked down suspects, arrested and charged them.
Is there anything in this story that implies homosexuals don't have equal rights?
I believe homosexuals do have equal rights when it comes this incident. They face more discrimination than the average American, but are protected by the law in the same way.

[Moontanman]

I am quite embarrassed by this guys, i was privy to information that wasn't supposed to be released and I blew it. I feel very bad about it, normally i am very good at keeping info confidential. i am often privy to information in many areas due to long standing friendships with various and often widely different people with very different world views and I feel very bad for violating this confidence.