Well, first, I'm not into all the flashy parades either, they're overly long and boring. We do have a festival in the park, which I enjoy as a social outlet and love the information. I'm not on the radical fringe and honestly don't believe in pushing it in everyone's faces either (ask anyone who's attended a meet with me), but I am a strong believer in equal protection under the law and for getting government the boot from our personal lives.
In marriage, I am expecting the same legal standards as they sit currently. In fact, I would be in favor or bringing back grounds for divorce. No one has ever expected lesser responsibilities for gay marriage.
Health: vaginal sex can also lead to cervical and vaginal cancer, not to mention unplanned pregnancies and STD's. Watersports, Bondage, Pain, object insertion, and the various forms of kink mentioned also are practised by heterosexuals.
Rome: Don't forget all the lead found in the aqueducts, pottery glazes and everywhere else. Centuries of accumulated exposure also gradually eroded the mental capabilities of the citizenry. Also remember the static nature of their technology. Other peoples were picking up and learning from the Romans, and used that knowledge in military tactics.
Promiscuity: I only have one word to say: Swingers.
Genetics: while an individual gene has not been located for homosexuality, being gay is a case of nature over nurture. The therapists and mental health "professionals" that claim otherwise are either letting greed or religious principle trump science. After all, they have a vested interest in maximizing the size of the encyclopaedia of treatable conditions. I do know of at least one professor teaching mental health professionals who brings homosexuals into class to show them being gay is not something to treat.
The Bible: At the very least, stay away from the King James Version. The KJV was created as a political document as much as a spiritual document. Queen Elizabeth had recently died, and the Puritain, Scottish Presbyterian, and Church of England partisans were pulling England apart at the seams. The Catholics didn't help unity, either, though were dismissed. King James commissioned a compromise Bible to satisfy all the Protestant sects.
Every Judeo-Christian religion picks and chooses the parts of the Bible it wants to choose for its doctrine. Every Judeo-Christian religion has the right to interpret the Bible in the creation of doctrine. Every Judeo-Christian religion has the right to apply the desired historical contexts to the Bible. I'm not even touching on all the religions that don't even use the Bible at all.
Our Founding Fathers chose wisely not to combine a Republican form of government and Theocracy. I respect that all of you have the right to believe as you wish, and to raise your children according to the beliefs you wish to instill. However, I also possess those same rights. The Constitution was crafted with care to protect the beliefs of all. Where the limitations of being men of their historical time failed to specifically grant equal status to all, the spirit has passed on to more enlightened generations to continue the work begun over 200 years ago.
All the Biblical/Moral banter is most interesting, but it lacks the salient point. What authority does government have to impose one moral viewpoint on the people?
