Homosexuality and Positive Discrimination

An issue that has been in the news (reasonably) recently in this country is the decision to allow homosexual couples to adopt children. This is the current climax of various ‘gay rights’ legislation, but is, understandably, the most controversial.

Normally I have absolutely no issues with equal rights, but the issue here raises questions that go beyond the rights of minority groups (i.e. they affect the children being adopted). Now I left school in 2004, and to be perfectly honest I wouldn’t want to have been adopted by gay parents. It would be an invitation to regular bullying – even in a school that was far from the decadent inner-city comprehensives that seem to be the worry of many parents. I understand that people have different views, and I know some perfectly normally people who have been bought up (for at least part of their lives) by gay parents. I guess I’m still divided on the matter.

I was wondering the other day what would happen if a similar agenda was laid before the American public?

My biggest issue however is the way that minority groups can create their own organisations that exclude, or partially exclude, the majority. The existence of gay nightclubs for me becomes much more sinister when you consider what would happen to somebody who tried to open a heterosexual nightclub. Or what about a white police officers’ association? A male businessmans’ club?

Is this a form of positive discrimination?

A fresh start?

Well it seems I’ve been a bit lazy recently. I don’t mean that I’ve not been posting enough, I post as and when I have time and I’ve been exceptionally busy recently. Instead I mean that I have not been covering a wide enough range of topics: most of the posts so far have been based on religion. Whilst I am keen on having discussions about atheism I am also keen to tackle over issues, most notably things that fall under the rather large umbrella of ‘pseudo-science’.

I also realise I have been quite lazy in interacting with other people sharing the ‘blogosphere’. So hopefully I will be having more debates and arguments with more people over the next few weeks and months.

So what has caused this feeling of laziness? Well I’ve realised that I would like to communicate some more ideas to other people, and to engage in discussions with other people. Also one of my friends (Felicity!) seems to be pursuing an interest in combining science and the media in some way, and it seems pretty cool. For several years I have been collecting a variety of newspaper cuttings, radio programmes and TV clips about things that interest me, and to be perfectly honest, it’s about time I started drawing on this resource!

Prussian Blue

I wonder who many Americans realise that there are a large number of people who look upon them as being religious fundamentalists in a very similar way as they look to countries in the Middle East. Of course this isn’t true for all Americans (in the same way as the entirety of the populations Middle Eastern countries aren’t Islamic fascists). Every now and then though something comes to light that really cuts through the masses and exposes certain sections of society to the rest of the world. For me one of the prime examples of such a cultural knife is the pop duo Prussian Blue.

I’m not sure how many people read what the holocaust deniers have to say. For those that don’t one of the breakdown products of Zyklon B (the gas used in the gas chambers) is the synthetic pigment Prussian Blue. The holocaust deniers claim that there is insufficient residue for the extermination of X number of Jews. What a lovely name for a pop band.

So who is in this duo? Well it’s not the classic neo-Nazi skinhead types, it’s a couple of young teenage girls. As you can probably imagine these views stem mainly from their parents, who are active in the ‘white power’ movement.

Perhaps the best way to expose how sad (and ridiculous) their views are is to let them speak for themselves:

“My racial awareness was always strengthened by my family....and my mom joined the NA when I was 8 years old. I am 12 years old now, I became a White Nationalist when I was 8, but before that I was already racial...."

Lynx Gaede

"I was racially aware ever since I was a baby. The first time Lamb and I saw a black, we were toddlers, and we called him a "Monster Guy". From then on, we called all blacks Monster Guys...of course now, they are known as niggers, but then they were Monster Guys. Anyways, I was racially aware in Kindergarten, I never went near the few blacks that were in my school, I was totally superior towards all of the mexicans, I knew that I was different from them, and that I had more intelligence then they did."

Lynx Gaede on she and Lamb calling black people "Monster Guys"

"I'm a girl! I think the boys should be fighting and the girls stay home!"

Lamb Gaede on fighting in a race war

Cynthia McFadden (ABC News): And what's your opinion on Hitler?
Lamb Gaede: I think that he had ... he wanted to preserve his race.
McFadden: He had 6 million Jews executed.
Lamb: I think that's an exaggeration.
McFadden: You do.
Lamb: Yes.
Lynx Gaede: I hardly believe there are even that many Jews alive back then.
McFadden: Is Hitler someone you admire or someone you don't admire? ... You think he was a great man?
Lynx: Yeah, I think he did a lot -- he had a lot of good ideas.