OK, well God accepts me for who I am and does not condemn me for being gay (nor for expressing those gay feelings responsibly). I know that because it took me a lot of praying and a lot of thinking about who God is, and why do I have these feelings for guys but not girls.

Why do I have these feelings for guys and not girls, but am still expected to keep them to myself and not express them?

Please answer Ashley, I’d really like to know because what you are saying does not make sense. It appears you don’t have the same understanding of God as I do.

I never said I thought you were not “free” or experiencing “freedom.” I said you DID have freedom; and that it ends where others’ begins. This is a legal/constitutional statement, not one about your sexuality. Maybe the following response, from Mike Airhart, said something you thought fit this.

Like I said before, if you are sexually honest, that is all that is needed in my eyes for someone to be respectable.

michael, i in no way think that people should deny there sexuality concerns, differences, or whatever or be dishonest about them. i find this to be something that many churches do fail to allow. honestly Jesus didn’t hang out with the pharisees He condemned them because of their selfrighteousness and hidden sins because we all know no is perfet yet somehow they thought they had it all figured out. no Jesus delved into the lives of people that were considered dirty, broken, evil, unclean, unholy, and sinners. He loved them all completely and despite who they were, where they were, and what they were doing. This is how the Christian church should treat everyone, but unfortunately there are a lot of pharisees in the church. i have lived the silent homosexual life without God, and i have now found a place of Christians that i can openly admit that i have these same sex attractions and be accepted. they forced no ideologies on me about homosexuality being a sin and me going to hell for being a homosexual. Instead they have loved me and the more i started to understand this love the more i realized that i don’t want to be a homosexual. instead i’d rather follow what God wants me to do with my life, and love people just like He loved me whether i fit the “stereotypical christian code” or not. yet you’re telling me i am denying my freedom and now even supporting a dishonest system of hate and oppression dealing with the “gay community”.(not entirely sure what term to use, so the gay community i think is safe enough not to offend anyone. if does offend you i apologize.)

You are more than welcome to not act out on your same sex desires. Afterall, not every straight person acts on their straight desires, but some gays do and that’s how it is.

Why would I feel this way toward other men and not women and God still forbids me to express those feelings? God must be cruel if he is like that.

But God is not cruel. The Christians who are much too ignorant to understand are the ones who are cruel. The bible condemns sexual practices we allow today and allows sexual practices that we do not allow today. Is there room for homosexuality to be accepted by the church? With all the overwhelming scientific evidence that homosexuality is normal for a minority, yes I think there is room.

All we’ve heard is excuse after excuse as to why we should not be accepted, Ashley. Most of us would accept you that you are celibate, but really, do you accept US for not agreeing with that and not living celibate?

However, people rightfully criticize those who deceive others about their same-sex sexual orientation, or who promote discrimination and unequal treatment of those who choose a path of sexual honesty. That isn’t hatred, it’s criticism. It’s integrity. There’s a difference.

Ashley is already free; she doesn’t need the “gay community” (whatever that is) to offer more of it to her.

“Freedom,” however, does not include a special right for anyone to promote dishonesty, disproven unfactual anti-scientific propaganda, bullying, or one-sided sectarian religious beliefs in public schools. Schools are for learning, not politics and proselytization.

Do you find Lesbian sex “hot?” Because if you are revolted by male same sex practices but turned on by my own female-only sexual practices, don’t you see a conflict of interest there?

Gay people have their sex lives sensationalized because straights who don’t “Get it” get obsessive about it. As a result, ALL kinds of sex they consider “deviant” they lump together. So a**l sex (which is enjoyed more by straight women than gay men) gets lumped in with bdsm. But some gays consider bdsm to be “deviant” or undesireable, and that’s their absolute right to believe that.

Additionally, it is the gay male sexual practices that are most luridly obsessed upon, while the female ones are considered “not really sex” or just “kinky” stuff that’s “fun to watch.” It’s ultimately the c**k that people (especially men) just CAN’T GET OVER.

I’d also like to say, off hand, that if anybody thinks there’s only 2 or 3 ways for two men or two women to have sex has it very very wrong. Straight sex and gay sex – between two human beings alone – is wonderfully varied. so stop obsessing. And anyway, it’s really none of your damn business.

I don’t know where you get this idea that leather and BDSM is a “gay” thing. It’s just as popular with straight people, if not moreso (because there’s more straight people out there, than gay people).

The only leather you’ll catch me wearing is shoes.

You didn’t like the pride parade? Join the club – I’ve only been once, and likely will never go again. Those events are an excuse for beer companies, etc. to make a shitload of money, and nothing more. Pride parades represents the “bar flys” of the gay community, and nothing else.

And please stop associating gay people with sex. Have you heard of swingers clubs for straight married couples, where they swap spouses? Have you heard of strip clubs? Have you heard of ‘Girls Gone Wild’? I could just as easily associate straight people with sex – ESPECIALLY American straight people.

Don’t judge all gay people because of some idiots at a pride parade. While that mix of gay and straight people are partying and getting drunk, the majority of us are working or we’re at home doing something better with our time.

Not all of us are “leather men”, or are into BDSM. As for transgender, transgender is different from homosexuality. Transgenders are people who believe they are the opposite sex (a woman trapped in a man’s body, or a man trapped in a woman’s body).

Homosexuals are people who are comfortable with their own sex. Some may behave like the opposite sex, but they are not uncomfortable being the sex they are. So learn the difference.

As for supporting transgenders. You don’t have to support homosexuals OR transgenders, that is your decision. But homosexuals are like anyone else, they simply love the same sex instead of the opposite (most are like that anyway).

And not supporting transgenders because they are transgender, just shows that what is important to you about other people is their genitals and not their heart.