What would you do if this was your son?

[mike340]

Various impressions:

So what about the Hogettes?

She should have prepared to say that her kid went as Scooby Doo before and he wanted to be a different character from the show this time. The other moms seem like a-holes. As far as the other kids, I'm sure that they kidded him about it, but if he's been otherwise a popular kid he probably will stay that way. (I'm assuming they know him a lot better than the moms do.)

My experience is that some homosexuals are "wired" that way and others are convinced. I think most everybody on the board has seen cases of the former. At the same time I've met at least one woman who was a lesbian and finally realized she started because she was always hanging with her sister (who was a lesbian). She started going out with a guy and realized that the lesbian lifestyle wasn't for her at all.

As far as I'm concerned, I'm OK with homosexuality so long as I don't have to "pay" for it. (I am in agreement with my late father who disliked their co-opting of the word "gay" since it has no equivalent in the English language.) It pissed me off no end that when I lived in Boston the only health club I could afford was the YMCA, and even though I spent more money to avoid the riff-raff, I felt millions of eyes on me in the locker room. I needed to use the pool (I was doing a lot of triathlons at the time) and only ended up taking one shower at the gym, since when I got the shampoo out of my eyes I had more eyes staring at my privates than I could count (and I'm a mathematician!)
It pissed me off that I couldn't go see a sunset next to the Charles River without having to tell guys multiple times that I wasn't interested.
And one year I took off to train for tris (1989). My main focus event was the Double Iron in Huntsville (4.8mile swim, 224 mile bike, 52.4 mile run.) So when I check into the hotel there's this guy who's hanging out at the desk and talking to the clerk. Then when I take my things to my room he follows me, telling me he lives in the hotel... The night before the race (2am) he calls me asking if I'd like a "rub".!?? I had already mentioned (going to my room) about a girl friend 'cause I'd already gotten the weird vibe from him. I just couldn't believe the SOB did that. Needless to say, I got no sleep after that. That was followed up by the wake-up call from the desk. When I got it, I explained what had happened. He laughed and said I had a "lover-boy, ha, ha, ha". I proceeded to tell the desk clerk how the SOB would die. Needless to say, the desk clerk never could figure out the room number of the SOB and the SOB was never visible. Of course, my race was shot. The marines who were crewing for me wanted to "explain" some things to this POS, but I didn't want to get them in trouble, so I nixed the idea. One thing is for the SOB to have wasted one year of work. The other is for the front desk to have covered for him. For me, this is a one-two punch that is unforgivable.

Ironically, when I lived in SF there were a lot fewer problems than in Boston. In Boston I had no idea when and where would be the next disagreeable encounter, whereas in SF I was never in the gay hangout areas, and they seemed to be considerate when you weren't in their "zone".

As far as the bullying in the news, why such a focus on homosexual bullying and not on other? There are huge numbers of kids who commit suicide; why are just these being selected? I find this pandering to this group offensive. (Note: Think of that "almost non-sexual" college student. He was a freshman and committed suicide on Sept 20. His roommate would probably not have videotaped his first sexual escapade, since he probably wouldn't have been sure that it was going to be with a man. So the earliest he would have videotaped would have been the second. By the next one the victim knew what was going on, so that makes at least 3. My question is: Would you have been comfortable sharing a dorm room with a guy who is bringing multiple guys to "sleep with" in the first month of school? I certainly would not.
Shouldn't they give a heterosexual a chance to "opt out" of having a homosexual roommate? Either that or make coed dorm rooms. That makes for an even playing field.
In any event, a terrible shame no matter how you slice it.

And don't get me started on the manipulation of AIDS statistics in this country...(I've dug into it including with AIDS organizations, although not in the last 10 years, and no-one could give me any statistics giving a reasonable breakdown of the spread and probabilities of infection, especially if one isn't in any of the at-risk groups.)