From: puttk@b11.b11.ingr.com (Ken Putt)
Subject: Re: Homosexual Rights
Organization: Intergraph Corp. Huntsville, AL
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 20:02:40 GMT

mason@lambda.msfc.nasa.gov (Jim Mason) writes:

>even included in the Bill of Rights.  People were persecuted for
>centuries (and still are today) because of their religious beliefs.
>Just because YOU would not judge on the basis of religious persuasion

Boy, you sure do go off on tangents. The topic of religious freedom is a
good one, but that's not the issue at hand.

>My point exactly.  I'm none too happy with the Moral Majority and their
>ilk, but I don't go around slamming them BECAUSE they form PACs.  I
>support their ability to advance their agenda in this manner, though I
>completely disagree with the substance of that agenda.

WOW! We agree on something! (Don't we? :-) ) I think PACs exert too much
influence because the furtherance of their cause is based on the amount
of money in the PAC, not on the right or wrongness of the agenda. 

>So "we" will determine what is "natural" by way of vote?  Lots of
>things are unnatural.  Left-handedness is unnatural.  People tried for
>YEARS to change left-handed people (supposedly influenced by the devil)
>into right-handed people.  Surgery is unnatural (in the middle ages,
>one could be put to death for the sin of cutting into the temple of
>the body).  Or are you saying that only those things which you find
>offensive should have the unnatural label applied?

I'm amazed at the unlikely places people look for something (anything)
to justify aberrant behavior! Left-handedness and surgery unnatural?
Travel back to the present.  Trust me, even people in the dark ages
could look at the human body and tell that the male parts were intended
to fit the female parts. 

>rights fundamental, or are they a privilege, which can be removed
>with simple majority vote?

Rights are most certainly a privilege. You have them because you are
here, not in cold-war East Germany or any one of the other totalitarian
countries. 

>Your implication is, I assume, that being gay or lesbian is an emotional
>problem.  Not everyone agrees.  It might be enlightening if you would
>provide us with your definition of "emotional problem."

Da**it Jim, I'm a Doctor, not a miracle worker! :-)  I know many
disagree with my position on that. I think an emotional problem is any
psychological problem that compells you to engage in aberrant behavior.
I guess there are many "flavors" and "degrees" of such conditions too.
"Aberrant" behaviors would be things like obsessive gambling, wife
beating, innapropriate violent behavior, child abuse, compulsive
stealing, self-exposure, peeping, lieing, rape, homosexuality, cruelty
to animals, ..... In my opinion of course. 

>If I assert that some people's obsessive concern with the manifestation
>of sexual diversity, which often boarders on paranoia, is a psychological
>problem, shall we submit those individuals to "civilized and logical"
>treatment?

I'm sure you would LOVE to submit me for some treatment that would make
me agree with your position that homosexuality is a natural alternate
lifestyle. Don't confuse taking a stand against a movement that I
believe will decay our Society in general and the American family
specifically with "obsessive paranoia". You have the right to choose
what you do in the privacy of your own home. Step into the public eye
and try to represent to me and my family that heretofor aberrant
behavior is an acceptable lifestyle for my children to choose, and I
will dispute you in spite of your coy inferences. Welcome to America.

Ken

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=               I N T E R G R A P H  C O R P O R A T I O N                   =
=   Kenny B. Putt   Component Engineer   b21!ce!brian   B21-105H  MS-CR2104  =
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=  All things in life worth cherishing are found in the heart, not the mind. =
=                    - My Opinions Are Simply That -                         =
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-- 
Ken

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