so you're OK with denying basic civil rights to gays?
Absolutely not! What I'm OK with is denying service to anybody who acts inappropriately.
When it comes to gays specifically, here is a good case in point. I was at Walgreens waiting to ask a pharmacist something. He was busy talking to 2 guys while I waited in line with about 3 other people behind me. One guy is dressed like anybody else.. the other was in punk rocker gear. As they went over whatever meds the punk rocker was picking up, he started comments like, "It's ok if it's a big pill, I'm great at swallowing!" When drowsiness comes up, he turns to his boyfriend and says, "You just want me to pass out so you can sleep rape me, you bitch." These comments continued for what felt like 10 mins. Vulgar, profane language from start to finish. People behind me began leaving the line, while I just watched in pure fascination. It even looked to me like the plain clothed boyfriend was uncomfortable. Clearly the pharmacist was uncomfortable and wanted to kick him out of the store, but was afraid to. He would just laugh nervously. He watched his employer lose business because of it.
That is a problem for me. Because you and I both know that if he did get kicked out he's gonna claim it was because he was gay.. dude loses his job.. gay guy gets a settlement.
Looking at employment, I read somewhere that 15% of gays believe they have been fired for being gay. This assumes that 100% of gays are good employees though, doesn't it? Few people who get fired are going to admit it was because they weren't doing a good job. I'm willing to bet that 15% of people are simply bad employees. I see them all the time! But if somebody is gay and a bad employee.. the employer just has to keep paying them out of risk of being labeled a homophobe and being sued?
This is exactly where it breaks down for me. While I totally support anti-discrimination, I also realize how easy it is to abuse such things. Further, I know that if in the case of employment, they will come up with another reason to put down on the discharge papers. NOBODY is going to put in writing that they fired somebody for being gay, so there is no stopping it in those specific cases. It's going to be because business is slow, or they were late too often, etc etc. They are going to get away with it, and no law will stop it. I also have faith that most people in this country would rather make money over enforce their petty views. Obviously, I don't expect all of them to do it, but.. for the most part? I'm certain few people have a problem dealing commerce with somebody who is gay. Or black. Or whatever. If they got money.. the shops usually do what they can to get it from them. Nobody wants bad publicity.
Now I sincerely hope you understand where I'm coming from. I don't think our views are all that different (except when it comes to guns). I just don't see this as anywhere near the same scope as blacks endured in this country 50 years ago. By far the biggest concern to me is marriage rights. Denying them that is really fucked up and there is absolutely no way to defend it IMO.
There are no easy answers when it comes to these things. I think when extreme lefties want to level the playing field, they often like to go a bit beyond and try to hand them an upper hand out of guilt or something, I dunno. It's hard to sort out.
