Being gay is harmful to society.

I am going to ignore the beginning of Pro's argument because all he is "others support my view". This isn't a debate on who has the burden of proof. Pro has also made many assumption about what I wanted this debate to be and how I shall argue. I hope that those assumptions will be shown as false in my following argument. "1) Gays are part of society 2) Being gay causes those people to come to harm through the negative view of others towards being gay 3) If something harms members of society then it harms society" "1)" I agree with obviously. Before I go into anything else, I will explain a common misconception. People think that things that other do directly cause an emotional reaction from others. This is not true. It is the beliefs surrounding the actions of the other person that causes an emotional reaction. This is true in all cases except ones where the action of the other person is life-threatening or severely life-changing. For instance, if a kid is picked last in gym class, the kid will often feel bad about him-herself. Was this caused y being picked last for a team in gym class? No, it was caused by the child's belief that being picked last meant that some negative thought about him/herself is true. Thoughts like that they are weak, not well liked, etc. Does this action actually mean these things are true? Maybe, but since the child will never know, it is irrational to let this action affect them negatively. This is why some people are able to listen to others say and do nasty things about and too them, and not be affected negatively by these actions. This is a key part of Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy, which was brought to the public by Albert Ellis PhD. http://www.minddisorders.com... "2)" is where Pro is wrong. For one, Pro has not said who "those" people are. If it is people who are anti-gay, then it is their beliefs about gays that causes themselves harm, not that others are gay. People who are anti-gay believe that gayness cannot be tolerated and so they cause harm to themselves with that belief because they cannot stop everyone from being gay, and become frustrated and hateful from it. If "those" people are gay people, then it is their belief that the view of others should make them feel negatively about themselves that causes them harm. Either way, it is not the act of being gay that is causing harm to people, but their beliefs about gayness and about what others think. Since neither of the actions described are life-threatening or severely life changing, "those" people being mentally harmed by the actions of others is irrational and caused by irrational beliefs. Therefore, it is not the action of being gay that is causing the harm to "those" people. "The most obvious being they are denied legal rights of relationship."- Again, this does not "harm" a person in any way, if a gay person feels hurt by this, it is because of their irrational beliefs seeing as this is not life-threatening or life changing. "Finally, the fact that there are gays causes considerable tension, loss of relationships, suffering to the families. Parents turn their back on children, children walk away from parents all because of a lack of acceptance of homosexuality."- Again, this is not caused by someone being gay, but a the people who aren't gays beliefs around others being gay. One last thing:"http://perezhilton.com...; Perez Hilton as a source? lolz.