Hate Outside

Hmm, I think it was just over a year ago that I attended a Love Won Out conference in Oklahoma City. I actually volunteered 'cause I was short on cash, wanted to help, and also wanted to get in free. So sue me. Anyway, got in free, got me a (nice-looking) T-shirt, and attended the all-day event. Quite good. And during a few free moments, I saw a familiar group of people across the street holding up signs. Familiar b/c I'd seen them at other homosexual-themed panel discussions and such in Norman, and b/c some of them were from a nearby church (which opens its arms and its theology to gay people and closes them to a belief in Hell) whose pastor used to preach at a less-obnoxiously-liberal but still liberal and still gay-friendly church where my grandmother used to attend and at which her funeral was held (and no, my grandmother was not a lesbian. She did say that the choir was really good there, though). I watched them hold up signs and get an occasional honk from passing cars. It was chilly and windy, so I hesitated, but then finally got the gumption to head out there to talk to them. There were about a dozen of these anti-"anti-gay" protesters, and they were about to pack it in at 1:30 pm. I asked why they were there and engaged them in pleasant conversation. One of them (who turned out to be an author of a mean-spirited book) was quite nasty to me, but he contented himself w/ a one-liner and left me to talk to some other people. I spoke at length w/ a young man named Jacob, who gave me his card. I later emailed him w/ some questions about how he justifies his homosexuality, but I never received any reply. After they headed back to wherever anti-"anti-gay" protesters go after protesting an "anti-gay" event, the rest of said event completed w/o further incident. No police were present w/ the protesters though there were a few inside the Christian university building where the event was held.

Contrast that w/ this demonstration in Boston over the same kind of event (w/ even the same speaker, Joe Dallas), the signs they held up, and what Boston's Finest did about it.
Read to the end of the article on the 1st link and ask yourself the same questions posed there: What if these had been pro-lifers outside an abortion-friendly church or an abortuary? What if these had been evangelicals - oops, sorry, I meant to say intolerant bigoted fundies - outside a lib church where PFLAG was meeting?
Just file this away in your mind - it is more proof that achieving a "neutral," value-free society where no one worldview is dominant in government or public thought is IMPOSSIBLE. Among many other things, the rise of the gay movement has provided backing evidence for this.