It's time to rid England's countryside of Neolithic gay porn

I thank my learned opponent for his eloquent and comprehensive response but would politely refer him to the ‘Comments' section of this debate where, at the outset, I stated that this debate was written "'tongue-in-cheek' and is in no way intended to be homophobic." Nevertheless, I fully accept that my sense of humour might be considered "juvenile" and also that the ‘Comments' section is not part of the main body of the debate and I will, therefore, duly respond to his arguments at face value. 1. The Cerne Abbas Giant is not obscene Obscenity, like beauty, is a matter of opinion – and much depends on context. To illustrate this point, I would like to draw the voters' attention to case relating to obscenity in Tennessee, as described by Bill Bryson in his book Made in America. "In 1951, the proprietor of the Hi Hat Lounge in Nashville, Tennessee, purchased a life-sized photograph of a naked young woman lying on a fluffy rug and proudly hung it behind his bar. Even by the relatively chaste standards of the day it was not a terribly revealing picture – only her posterior was exposed to view – and probably nothing more would have come of it except that one day an electrician arrived to do some work and recognized the woman in the photograph as his wife, which surprised him because she had never mentioned that she was doing nude modeling for a local photographer. The electrician took the Hi Hat to court, and for a short while the matter became first a local and then a national sensation. With the eyes of America on him, Judge Andrew Doyle ruled that as art the photograph was perfectly acceptable, but that as a barroom decoration it was ‘unquestionably obscene'." (1) A similar view could be expressed with regard to the Cerne Giant - as an antiquity, it should be preserved, but under a cover, with access being made available to scholars and other interested professionals. With regard to the homosexual nature of the Cerne Giant, I would contend that an image of a naked young woman would, generally, be more appealing to a heterosexual man than an image of a naked man – and visa-versa - whereas women have never been avid patrons of pornography. 2. Local communities have the right to determine their own moral standards Please let me give an example where a local community argued just this. For years, the members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints led seemingly blameless lives, spending their days raising children, working their land and performing household chores, and they strongly resented the close attentions of law-enforcement officers who were investigating reports of activities lacking in moral standards that they suspected had taken place on a routine basis within their compound. Understandably, perhaps, the community was outraged when 534 women and children were forcibly removed from their homes and their leader, Warren Jeffs, was arrested and subsequently jailed. His numerous offences related to incest and sexual conduct with a minor and being an accomplice to the rape of a 14-year-old girl who wed her cousin in an arranged marriage in 2001. (2) Clearly, the moral standards this community determined for themselves fell woefully short of those adopted and accepted by the wider population - and that's why they were, quite rightly, obliged to conform with the more robust moral standards that apply to society as a whole. 3. Tourists assume the risk of witnessing uncomfortable things when visiting foreign locations. This is true, but I never sought to deny it. However, when they return to their native lands and report that they had seen: child prostitution in Thailand; extreme poverty in India; gangland violence in Mexico; public executions in Yemen or Neolithic gay porn in England, it may deter potential tourists from travelling to those countries in the future. 4. Censoring the Cerne Abbas Giant would harm Dorset I am pleased to report that Dorset has many tourist attractions, so many, in fact that the Cerne Giant doesn't even feature on the list of the top 18 (3) so the economic impact of censoring this piece of stone age porn would be minimal. Thank you. (1) http://www.tucson.halversen.com... (2) http://www.msnbc.msn.com... (3) http://www.dorsetforyou.com...