"Like just about every parent I know, I was horrified by this episode because I couldn't believe that the politicians involved didn't themselves react first as parents, grandparents, aunts or uncles -- rather than as politicians -- when they learned about Foley's special interest in a page."
Family values for me isn't about worrying about gays or straights, and what they do with other adults. Families values for me, means that we protect the underaged from predatory adults- whether those adults want to have sex with them, or be sent a picture of a penis or a vagina, or take dirty. None of that is ok with me, and it has nothing to do with Foley being gay.
If we don't put children and young adults first, just what kind of a family do we have? A pretty dysfunctional one, imo. What adults get up to with each other is just fine and dandy with me, as long as everyone consents, and they aren't humping on street corners where children and sensitive adults might be troubled by a spot of public indecency. But really, who doesn't understand that protecting young adults (young women as well as men) from predatory older folks, isn't a benefit to society. We don't live in a society where most people approve of such predation, and since we are a democracy, our representatives should do what we wish, and protect young men and women, as opposed to trying to hide the offenses.
I'm sick and tired of seeing the right say how liberals are now on some sort of witch hunt for homosexuals, or now the liberals are angry at Foley for being a homosexual. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The only people I see trying very hard to separate Foley's behavior, from that of all the really wonderful gay men out there in committed relationships, are liberals. Liberals, after all, are the people who SUPPORT gay family values- and who support giving gay people the right to marry and have committed marriages under the aegis of the state, just like everyone else. Republicans are the ones who are so afraid of gays that having them "touch" the marriage sacrament will immediately cause the destruction of marriage (and later the US), but apparently allowing a man to ask pages for pictures of their penises and asking them to suck him off when their in town, does no harm at all. How much more insulting to gays could republicans be? I can't figure out why a single gay man would ever be a republican- and I'm sure they don't have many, but it's amazing they have any. Go figure.
Just as there are heterosexuals who prey on young women (and MY there are a lot of them), there are some homosexuals that like young men. We know that most men fantasize about younger men and women- hence the attraction of "barely legal" magazines for men of both orientations, and (although I've no data on this) I doubt there are many 40 year olds in porn movies aimed at adult hetero men. In fact, I believe I've read that many of those girls were under age. So when we talk about family values, we probably ought to acknowledge that in our "family" here in the US of A, there is a cult of youth, and everyone wants to sleep with a man or woman with unwrinkled perfect skin, a tight ass, and all their own hair. And it's ok to fantasize about youth, if you want to, or if you need to, but when it comes to young people who are underage, in our family, since most parents don't want their children predated upon, we need to insist that the fantasy doesn't become reality. We can do that. Lots of people fantasize about robbing banks, or killing their boss, or spouse, or someone else- but most people don't act on those fantasies, and it's ok to hold people accountable when they do- whether they are heterosexual or homosexual. |
