What, did you stop watching after 2 seconds?

Did you miss the part where he says. "Blame me?... [to one of the males] look how you're looking at me. Do you blame me for that line? You just wish you came up with it first".

He meant it to be a come on line.

I run in a lot of debate circles, this caller is what we like to call "moving the goal post". She starts her argument with "oh Michael, you're just so negative toward Sarah Palin", when her point is crushed, she moves on to "you hate women". Thank you caller, buh beye.

Sadly, there are far too many people in this world who simply cannot, when faced with facts, alter their opinion or at the very least, admit that they were incorrect.

GOProud it's like the black auxiliary to the KKK. Somebody please tell me I somehow landed in bazaaro world and all I have to do is click my heals three times to get back to a world that makes actual sense.

Um, no they aren't. Armed robbery which ends in the death of the clerk at the store is not a hate crime. It is murder.

What you, apparently, don't seem to understand is that our legal system punishes crimes based on specific criteria. Motive being one of them. Designation of a "hate crime" as opposed to simple assault provides a specific punishment to the criminal greater than that of assault.

It's a matter of getting the maximum amount of punishment for a particular crime so that we can deter similar crimes from happening or at the very least, keep those who have a blatant disregard for humans off the streets.

It is not I who categorizes this as a hate crime, it's the government. You have a problem with that, take it up with your government.

again you show the limits of your imagination.

Okay, so, you admit that Christianity is a choice?
Why then should religion be a protected class?
If these two men were beaten up because they were carrying Bibles would you not be outraged? Would you not consider that a hate crime?
I would!

You know what? I can't debate you on this, now that I know where you're getting your arguments from.

Even if you don't know where they come from, the majority of your arguments about homosexuality are coming from the people at "Family Research Counsel" and "National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality". These are both faith based organizations that are not scientific at all and both are listed as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

They make money off of trying to "treat" homosexuality.
If you align yourself with them and your arguments are coming from their play book, your mind is already made up.

But, just for the heck of it...
Identical twins in fact DO NOT have the same genes. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/11/health/11real.h...

I am telling you that LGBT people are being murdered, imprisoned and undergo corrective rape in other countries such as Uganda, South Africa and Iran. Yet somehow they still exist.

Millions of people would not risk death or torture for a choice that they can simply unmake.

To think otherwise is absolutely ignorant of reality.

I'm done with you as you obviously refuse to see the reality that is in front of you.

Austinactivist: I don't care what "learned and respected" people agree with you. Are those learned and respected people students or scientists within a field that would gain them access to superior knowledge to that effect? Are they LGBT themselves?

I'm learned in software engineering and I can have opinions in that regard because that is my area of study and expertise. I can not comment on the economic situation in China because it is not an area that I've studied nor can I tell you how to perform brain surgery.

I am, however, gay. I am telling you, do to my 32 years of being me and knowing me better than you do... I did not choose to be gay. The overwhelming vast majority of LGBT people you will encounter in your life will tell you the same.

You do not get to just make up your own reality and spread it like truth. That's not how the world works.

I don't know your children and I am not teaching them anything at all.

I do object to you teaching your children that being LGBT is a choice. Would you go around teaching them that 2+2 is 6? No, because that is not true. Why then would you teach them another untruth to further your own agenda?

I am the grandson of two carpenters, doesn't mean I know how to frame a house. My dad is also a cop doesn't mean I can run around with handcuffs arresting people either.

Throughout this "debate", you've attributed myths about homosexuality to being real.

You've decided that being LGBT is a choice, all on your own, despite the scientific evidence to the contrary.

You've decided that homosexuality as we see it in humans does not exist in nature, despite scientific evidence to the contrary and despite the fact that, as humans, we are part of nature as well.

You justify your thought process, internally, based on a Christian world view but... I'm willing to bet you dollars to donuts that if you were to ask those 5 cowards who attacked these two men what religion they were, they will tell you "Christian".

I'm also willing to bet (because I've seen it before) that you and others like you will say that, these 5 attackers weren't "Real Christians".

I've seen the debates and arguments before, and when actual evidence is put to the task, you will turn a blind eye to what is right in front of your nose in order to maintain your stand point on LGBT people being less than you because you happened to have been privileged enough to be born heterosexual.

You've said several things in this debate but when asked to show scientific peer reviewed evidence to back up your assertions, you fail to provide. This is simply because, simple google searches will provide evidence contrary to what you say from credible scientific sources.

Back to Genesis. Here is where you need to think a little bit. As the story is being told, part of the story has to do with men of the town wanting to rape the angels (who they think are men), this is true. You equate that with two consenting adults who are in a mutual loving relationship with one another.

As anyone who has ever written anything will tell you, it's a task to paint a full picture of events. The S&G story attempts to be very descriptive even to the point where the townsmen assembled in the town outside of Lot's house.

Is assembling outside of a house also a sin since that's in there too? No, it is the intent. The intent of the men was not to engage in a life long loving relationship with these angels, the intent was to physically rape them.

Now, I don't begrudge you being Christian and outspoken about it. You are entitled to maintain your religion, and when push comes to shove, I will stand up and defend that with you even though we disagree on the particulars.

I will not, however, allow misinformation and unproved and disproved myths about LGBT people to run without opposition. These myths are wrong, they are lies and they need to stop. If you have an opposition to LGBT people that is fine. You have a right to your opinion but, please, quit spreading the ancient lies which have already been debunked.

While the sexual acts that follow any given relationship are a choice, being LGBT is not a choice. We should not be denied our right to life, liberty or property simply because we happen to be LGBT and your world view says otherwise.

This is America, land of the free and home of the brave!

Austinactivist No, homosexuality had nothing at all to do with Sodom and Gomorah Ezekiel 16:48-49 "This is the sin of Sodom; she and her suburbs had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not help or encourage the poor and needy. They were arrogant and this was abominable in God's eyes."

However, the S&G story was not even written as historical fact. It was parable which any serious student of scripture knows. Also, any serious student of both scripture and history will tell you that, during biblical times, there was no concept of homosexuality as we have today.

In that day, homosexuality was purely an act of physical sexual gratification and sex at all, outside of the purpose of procreation was abominable.

Further, as an American, I invoke my first Amendment right to be free from YOUR misunderstanding of scripture.. Meaning, I have freedom of religion as well and yours should not be used as a means of legalized discrimination against my sexual orientation.

"No other species practices homosexuality"... No other species is human either and as a human, I am telling you that I did not make the choice to be gay, therefore, it was not a choice. Nor is it about dominance or necessity due to lack of interest from the opposite sex.

Now, about your other assertions. Just because homosexuality has not been found to appear in a similar manor in nature, does not mean it does not actually exist in nature. It simply means that we have not witnessed it in nature as of yet.

Except that, your assertion is completely false, if you would care to simply google the term homosexuality in nature, you will find all sorts of resources that will show that there are over 1500 species in the animal kingdom (of which we are a part) that exhibit not only homosexual acts but, relationships with members of the same gender. The going theory is that, of all of the social species you will find some percent that naturally fall on the homosexual end of the spectrum.

You will also find that this has been studied by actual scientists and not just some armchair activist.

However, considering the fact that humans are part of nature and you do find homosexuality in humans, it does in fact exist in nature in at least 1 species that we know of. We did not need scientific data to prove this to be correct.

Wrap your brain around that and then get back to me.