The Observation Deck

Ryan

You are mixing all kinds of unrelated things together. Whether by design, I don’t know. But clearly you are painting, by innuendo anyway, gay persons as child molesters, ala the pedophiles in NAMBLA. They are as sick as the 35 year old heterosexual that has sex with his 4 year old daughter. And your use of NAMBLA as an example for homosexual proclivities proves your point as well as using anyone of the myriad parental incest cases would prove the same of Heterosexuals. Anyone who deals in issues of sexual abuse will tell you that the sex part is only the tool of the abuse, not the end in and of itself. The same holds true of rapes and incest. Pedophilia is as separate and distinct from homosexuality as a penis is from a vagina.

The simple answer to your question of “when’s the proper ageâ€Â￾ is when the person involved is mature enough to accept the consequences of their actions. The legal requirements, age of consent, statutory rape, etc., are merely legal definitions of when that maturity is present, from a purely legal standpoint. It is a recognition that some children are prone to do stupid things and that there are persons, older and presumably wiser, that are placed on a higher standard of behavior for the protection of those children.

A sexual relationship between a heterosexual couple, aged 15 and 19 is as illegal as a similar act between a homosexual couple of the same age. In either case, each couple is acting based on their “wiringâ€Â￾.

Jeff

This thread is STILL going?!

I was given a strong Christian upbringing, and Mr. Salo appears to be working very hard to give Christians a bad name.

We were told growing up that "God is Love." Not "God is Heterosexual Love." Just Love. Capital L. I'm afraid you've missed the point.

This thread is STILL going?!

I was given a strong Christian upbringing, and Mr. Salo appears to be working very hard to give Christians a bad name.

We were told growing up that "God is Love." Not "God is Heterosexual Love." Just Love. Capital L. I'm afraid you've missed the point.

Thanks for your thoughts Holly, and for keeping the post at the top

I have not missed the point, I try to love and care about everyone personally. I will not make a salvation judgment on anyone and I am not near perfect in any way. I do not think this is a huge issue, just a hot topic that a lot of people have gotten involved with.

I have defended myself in a lot of posts, I just wanted people to see the discussion from all angles. I think open dialog on debatable subjects is healthy and productive. We may not all agree on things but thankfully we all have the right to speak. (although you were the only post asking that I get censored)

It's not up to you to make salvation judgments.

I didn't ask for you to be censored, simply suggested what you were doing constituted hate speech. Your indictments are directed at specific individuals in our city, and your idea of community standards are frightening and repressive.

God loves gays.

Holly,

"God loves gays"

I couldn't agree with you more. Thankfully he loves all of us.

He also wants us to live free from sin.

BTW - It would be a very scary day if your view of what hate speech is ever becomes reality. Every church leader and anyone talking about morals could be thrown in jail if they "offend" someone.

Ryan Salo wrote:He also wants us to live free from sin.

That is also true, but there are certainly different interpretations of what the Bible says is sin so we all need to be careful about trying to force our version of morality on others.

Religion should not be the basis for law. Doing so would automatically alienate and discriminate against one group or another unless you feel it's ok to do so. However, I don't think that's what the founding fathers had in mind when they declared independence.

Holly C. Whisman wrote:It's not up to you to make salvation judgments.

I didn't ask for you to be censored, simply suggested what you were doing constituted hate speech. Your indictments are directed at specific individuals in our city, and your idea of community standards are frightening and repressive.

God loves gays.

What specifically did Mr. Salo write in his more than 50 posts on this thread that "constituted hate speech". Please quote the "hate speech" and give the date and time of the post(s).

Frank Murtaugh wrote:What specifically did Mr. Salo write in his more than 50 posts on this thread that "constituted hate speech". Please quote the "hate speech" and give the date and time of the post(s).

While I don't know if I"d go as far as hate speech, but if you were to replace all of Ryan's references to "gay", "homosexual", or "gay lifestyle" with "black" or "black lifestyle" or "fat people" and "fat lifestyle" or "women" and "female lifestyle" I can guarantee you there would be no one here defending his points and you'd have quite a different outlook.

I mean really. If I were to start a post about how outrageous it is that the city recognize Black History month and then go on through an entire thread calling black people sinful, saying they shouldn't be allowed to get married, then started quoting bogus facts about how black people are destroying society, support pedophiles, molest children, eat babies, sleep with an average 800 people, and I don't want to allow their "lifestyle" in Lakewood, then yes, I think you would all feel differently.

But since it's about gay people....that's ok because we don't count.

But since it's about gay people....that's ok because we don't count.

Oh, we count. At least when it comes to our taxes and our money. Our money is good enough, but apparently our love isn't.

All of the taxes, none of the rights. Seems fair to me....

Don't forget those tourist dollars!

Frank Murtaugh wrote:

Holly C. Whisman wrote:It's not up to you to make salvation judgments.

I didn't ask for you to be censored, simply suggested what you were doing constituted hate speech. Your indictments are directed at specific individuals in our city, and your idea of community standards are frightening and repressive.

God loves gays.

What specifically did Mr. Salo write in his more than 50 posts on this thread that "constituted hate speech". Please quote the "hate speech" and give the date and time of the post(s).

This is one.. 6/1 at 11:04 a.m., promising vigilantism against "open sin" and likening being gay to an "open strip bar"

"I WILL NOT sit and let this culture accept open sin just like I would not sit and let Lakewood open strip bars or anything that is morally wrong or detrimental to society."

Or, same day, 10;34 a.m....likening gay people to the KKK.

"The similarity of KKK and gay pride is that they are both promoting special interest groups that are controversial and in some minds both have wrong activities."

Sounds pretty hateful here.

Actually though I think Mr Salo may have shot himself in the foot. Anti-gay will get you elected in some places but I think people in Lakewodo have made their peace with the issue, especially because so many of us have the pleasure of having good neighbors who also happen to be gay neighbors.
Lakewood may have its prejudices but I really dont see this one being among them. Mr Salo has probably moralized himself out of the possibility of ever being elected to public office in Lakewood.

Well there are some that don't follow your biblical beliefs Mr. Salo and believe in many lives until we get it right. In this case I believe you will come back as a gay man in another life.

As far as your statistics on how many gay partners men have, I think if straight men could get that many females to engage in sex with them, most would! Who takes those statistics and why do you care?

You stereotypes of all gay people are so archaic and hateful but the responses to your posts were enjoyable to read and kept me reading.

dl meckes wrote:Don't forget those tourist dollars!

DL

I was involved in other threads.

Did we get a Gay Pride Parade or not?

.

The parade is still in downtown Cleveland, Saturday, June 16th.

11:00 am Assembly on West 3rd Street at Rockwell Avenue
12:00 noon Step-Off to Voinovich Bicentennial Park
1:00 pm Rally entertainment and speeches