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Should Gay Couples Have the Same Civil Rights as Straights?

April 28, 2005

(archived broadcast ) (.wma download)
[This show was originally broadcast on May 17, 2004, the day Massachusetts legalized marriages of gay couples. It is being replayed today at listeners’ request.]
Mark Debates Glenn Stanton,
Focus on the Family ‘s Director of Social Research and Cultural Affairs and Senior Analyst for Marriage and Sexuality. Mr. Stanton is the anti-gay-marriage expert at one of the leading interest groups in America that opposes giving gay couples equal civil rights to straight couples. Mr. Stanton’s job is to train his colleagues at Focus on the Family who oppose same-sex marriage on how to debate the issue publicly by giving them the talking points and “spin bites” they need to argue the issue.
As you can imagine, Mark and Glenn had quite a debate.

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  • egrassh June 8, 2005 2:43 am

    You know,I am going to have to agree with Vicky on one of her points:It doesn’t feel right to me that they should be shoving the gay issue on kids like she was saying.If parents are relgious and they don’t feel it’s a good thing for the teachers to try to explain gay people to their children,then they should stick to the math,spelling and english.A high school student shouldn’t have to pass sexual orientation class to graduate.They do have sex ed in some schools,but they first send a note home to the parents asking if it’s ok to put the child thru the class and they usually don’t add sexual orientation to the class.A parent, in otherwords,should have a warning flag before any of these kinds of things or any other related subjects are taught to their children.
    I can see evolution being taught because there is so much evidence,and if the parents don’t want their children to be exposed to that they can send them to private schools,or like some families(including my cousin)home school.But you should be able to send your child to regular school and not have the teacher teaching about gays,with the exception of telling the children about tolerance,you know,of someone who is different.I’m sorry to say,this probably doesn’t help much but it should be taught anyway.They can do that without the teacher adding in her personal opinions,or her religious convictions.
    There are a lot of religious people in America,and they should have the right to raise their children the way they see fit,unless like the kkk they are teaching them hate.And I don’t agree with telling people they can’t have religious signs on their doors because it offends people.We can all worship or not worship, and leave people alone who like to adorn themselves with their proclamation of their religion,as long as they are not hurting anyone.Otherwise, we would all have to stop putting up Christmas decorations.
    When a child is of school age,lets say after puberty,they are all very confused about sex,and ask a lot of questions.This is an awkward time and they shouldn’t have people shoving the gay issue in their face,especially when they go to church every sunday and the minister tells them gays are sinful.like I said before,let the parents decide how they want their child to learn about gay people, as long as they’re not telling them to kill anyone.
    Let me give you an example about what I’m talking about.Here in Washington,one of the small,rural towns here had an incident where they decided not to have Halloween celebrations because it exploited the religion of Wicca.Give me a break that was just going too far.That religion is borderline Satanism.I have researched it and it sure looked that way to me.
    But what the heck.It’s free country,isn’t it?So they should be able to practice their own religion.OK, but why are we taking this fun celebration away from our kids?
    So the bottom line is,if a parent wants to send a child to regular school,to learn all the regular things we all learned,they shouldn’t have to deal with a teacher or other children handing them literature or writing stuff on the blackboard saying being gay is natural.Whether or not I,or the teacher, or anyone else has an opinion on whether it’s natural or not.

  • J. Newshound June 7, 2005 8:53 am

    Vicky–now I’m really confused–but I think I’m supposed to double-up on my partners-without-pants meetings

  • Vicky June 6, 2005 7:17 pm

    Garçon de Johnny – je le trouve typique qu’un “progressif” comme vous-même blâmerait vos parents de la confusion que vous avez aux sujets sexuels.
    ***** ***** ***** *****
    Newshound – hay ayuda para la gente confusa tal como se en los “socios sin los pantalones” – el programa bien conocido del Dr. Freud.

  • Johnny Newshound June 6, 2005 6:07 pm

    Vicky–my parents left a pamphlet in my dresser drawer–I’ve been confused about sex ever since (The instructions were in french and spanish)