I just read an article that highlights a reunion kiss between a sailor home on leave and his newly betrothed. They had not seen each other in seven months and had won a lottery sponsored by their local television news station that was featuring family reunions, to see who got the first kiss when stepping off the ship. When they did what most happily married spouses would do, some viewers cheered, while others jeered. The objections had to do with people believing it was perverted, unnatural and not in keeping with the ‘family friendly’ nature of the broadcast. Some were appalled that children should have to be exposed to this and wondered how to explain to them why two men were kissing. When watching the video, I saw nothing but approving applause from those gathered. What the sailor did was no different than what his comrades, male and female did when greeting their families. While viewing the segment, I teared up as well.
What puzzles me is how some would rather see two people battling it out than hugging and kissing it out, if the two don’t adhere to their perception of what love is supposed to look like. How do you explain to kids? Simple enough to tell them that when two people love each other, regardless of gender, kissing is one way to express it. When two people love each other, regardless of gender, they sometimes commit to each other and get married. They then do what married people do…grocery shopping, laundry, lawn mowing, grocery shopping, bill paying…you know, ‘normal people stuff’. Sometimes they raise children who hopefully will grow up to have loving and mutually respectful partners as well.
Of course, I had to post the article on my Facebook page with the caption “I wonder if the people who think this is not family friendly, don’t recognize that family comes in all forms.”
The first response was from someone who said, “Sorry, this is not a family it’s a preference.”
My response was, “How do you define family? How do people prefer to love? Who gets to decide that two men, two women who love each other are not family?”
His counter was, “I’m a conservative and have conservative values and definitions. You can choose as you wish but don’t subject my kids to this. And that’s the problem….people like you want to normalize deviant behaviors. Now you want to normalize pedophilia.” (Where did that come from?)
The man then referenced ‘The Gay Agenda’ “It’s an effort to break up the traditional family unit by redefining what family is. This agenda goes back over 200 years and it’s Satanic in nature.”
The conversation continued, “When did you decide to be heterosexual? Was it a choice? Was it something decided at birth? What if one of your children is Gay? How would you treat them? Deviant behaviors? Kissing your spouse is deviant? Your children live in a world in which people love someone of the same gender.”
A few friends chimed in with their perspectives:
“All your children are being subjected to is reality. You can’t nor should you try to protect anybody from reality. How you define things does not determine another’s reality.”
“Being homosexual is not the same as being a pedophile. Many adult hetero men have recently been arrested for child porn and pedophilia, and these are ministers and politicians.”
“I notice that our president encourages people to assault each other, and demonizes people he has never met, calling them bad hombres, just because they have brown skin, and treats women like garbage…and I wonder…what is it about homosexuality that you find to be MORE of an affront to your values than actions like these? I know LOTS of people who walk on the “alternative” paths, and NONE of them are dangerous, hateful, or want to change other people. What do you find so threatening about people just wanting to be themselves?”
At the time of the completion of this article, the original commentator has not responded. Hopefully, we gave him something to consider the next time he kisses his spouse/partner or hugs his children.
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