It’s one of the most silly and amusing arguments used by homophobes in their protests against gays and marriage equality: how do we explain it to teh children? As if it were such an inconceivable notion for their young little minds. As if it really was all that difficult to just say, “Those two men/women are in love and wanna raise a child, and because women are mommies and men are daddies, that makes them both daddies/mommies.” (Well, okay, that did take longer to type out than I thought it would. Like, it takes a whole 8.5 seconds to read out. What kid is gonna pay attention for that long when there’re all these gays milling and rubbing and kissing about?)
The latest gheys-r-evrywhar! scare comes courtesy of Catholic mommy-blogger Stacy Trasancos, who admits to literally being “afraid to leave the house”[screenshot] because of all the rampant homosexuality on display around the neighborhood. (Note to pearl-clutching parents: Avoid public parks. And swimming pools.) And I’m talking big-time raunchy filth, here, like “rubbing elbows” and “hugging”. Oh, and she’s terrified at the notion of having her kids ask her why two men or women are cooing over the same baby and being so darned lovey-dovey. (Or, as she puts it, “displaying, right in front of [her] and [her] children, that they live in sodomy”.)
Well, as it so happens, noted comedian Louis CK has something to say on that subject that I think is pretty damned spot-on:
My transcript: (click the [+/-] to expand/collapse →)
People that try to talk about it like it’s a social issue. Like when you see someone stand up on a talk show and say, ‘How am I supposed to explain to my child that two men are getting married?’ I dunno; it’s your shitty kid, you fuckin’ tell him. Why is that anyone else’s problem? Two guys are in love, but they can’t get married ’cause you don’t wanna talk to your ugly child for fuckin’ five minutes?
Although, I must protest all the child-demeaning. Kids are people, too. Annoying, incompetent and immature people. Though, they are forgiven of these transgressions for having to deal with even more annoying, incompetent and immature parents who can’t muster the courage or reason to sit down and give their kids thirty seconds of their time to explain some of the simplest and most obvious things in life. Such as the fact that some people like others of the same gender. End of story.
Really, just what in the world is so damned difficult about it to comprehend?
Can a 33-year-old woman and a 15-year-old teenager become virtual lovers? This is the question that must answer the judges of the Criminal Court of Nevers (Nièvre) who examined Tuesday a never-before-seen case of “corruption of minor”. A report that has dates back to 2008 with the MSN messenger of one of the most famous of videogames, Call of Duty.
A war game normally not conducive to feeling, which saw Céline, 33, start a platonic but terribly invasive relationship with Thomas*, 15. The latter’s parents filed a complaint and justice must now decide.
Late 2008, Thomas is a teenager like many others. Located in the south of France, he spends much of his free time on his computer. He joined a group of players on a Call of Duty network. Soberly called Team, this group only contains major players and not “pajamas”, minors in videogame jargon.
But Thomas made himself a place. In addition to the game’s military missions, he converses over MSN with Shoot, the pseudonym of Céline, who lives several hundred kilometers away, in the Nièvre. The latter makes no secret of her mature age. In a few weeks, Thomas and Céline exchange more and more texts, phone calls and messages, sometimes in the middle of the night. But in spring of 2009, while Thomas and Céline live a romance by correspondence, the teen’s parents file a complaint because they worry about the scale of the story. Police officers first examine the hundreds of calls and messages. There are also letters and even photos exchanged. On one of the images, Céline is topless. Quickly, they identify the computer and the phone from which these messages come from and arrive at Céline, a divorced housewife and recently a young grandmother.
Heard on the facts in spring of 2009 by the officers in the Nièvre, Céline acknowledges the facts and takes responsibility this curious long-distance love story. She has never seen Thomas other than in photos, he’s almost as old as her eldest daughter, but she is convinced she loves him. For his part, the young boy saw his grades dip, but he too affirms before officers that he’s in love with Céline despite the age difference. He’s only awaiting his legal adulthood to live with her.
During the investigation, Céline and Thomas both underwent psychological examinations that demonstrate that they have a certain “fragility” in common. Thomas’s is linked, according to the expert, to the usual problems of adolescence.
More technological cluelessness: Senators want to make it a crime to stream copyrighted content (such as embedding YouTube videos on a blog). (via The Agitator)
“In sophomore year, Ben [Alley] [pictured] informed his parents that he is gay. They informed him he wouldn't be coming home after school the next day -- or ever again.” (via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)
Excellent essay by John Cheese at Cracked.com: It really does get better, and not just for LGBT teens.
Well, damn. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) resigns over the latest stupid-inane-pseudo-“scandal”. (via @todayspolitics)
Glenn Greenwald on US politics: Tyranny and war-mongering? Let it slide. Political “sex scandal”? OMG FIRE HIM NAAOOO
Man fired after asking for a modified schedule to deal with his wife’s cancer.
Samuel L. Jackson reads the “children’s book” Go the Fuck to Sleep. (via The Agitator)
If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.
In which Vox Day, replying to a reader at his new pet project, the Alpha Game blog, shares an insight into his strange view of marital duties:
Never marry a woman who does not see sex as part of her marital duties, because she is a woman who does not believe a woman has any marital duties. Sex is the single most important aspect of a marriage, indeed, it can even be theologically argued that sex is marriage.
Look, I don’t know much about women and dating (to put it mildly), but I do know this: If your decision whether or not to declare your intention of spending the rest of your life with someone is based primarily, or solely, on how much sex you hope to expect from them … then hun, you’re screwed. (And not in the way you’re obviously hoping for.)
Seriously, why do so many of these MRA types always make it all about sex? Are they really that insatiably horny, or otherwise unable to find enough willing women to keep their lust at bay? I can hardly imagine the sort of mentality that leads one to believe that something as relatively silly and inane as sex, fun though it may be, is in reality the primary function of a marriage. If you’re that desperate for gratification, you’ll always have your trusty palm-and-five-fingers combo (and whatever toys you’re willing to blow money on). You really don’t need to get this needy for some blessing from (as one anti-feminist put it) those “gatekeepers of sex”.
And if “sex is marriage” … then I suppose the right-wing crusade to protect and uphold the “sanctity of marriage” was lost from the very beginning.
It turns out not only was President Obama’s promise to close Gitmo [pictured] garbage, but his plan all along was just to move the entire core operation to Illinois without actually stopping indefinite detentions at all. Here’s growing ever happier that I didn’t vote for him.
NRA refuses to believe that most Americans want tighter gun safety laws.
England apparently has an old law that makes it a punishable offense to knowingly make false claims about a political opponent. Why doesn’t the rest of the world have this law and why isn’t it vigorously enforced? (via Political Irony)
MSNBC suspends Keith Olbermann without pay for donating to three Democratic candidates’ political campaigns. Idiotic comments about how Olbermann is a hypocrite for criticizing News Corp.’s GOP contributions and how MSNBC is really just as bad as Fox News in 5 … 4 … 3 …
Philadelphia cops twice arrest John Solomon [pictured] and confiscate his legal gun and permit, because of his “insolence” – for “loitering” at a bus stop. As usual, I’m sure his appearance has nothing to do with it. (via The Agitator)
If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.
I’m a liberal skeptic, rationalist & third-wave atheist stuck in a rut in Québec, Canada and who spends his time composing, writing, drawing, harboring a layman’s passion for science and technology, getting angry at social injustices, and most of all, jabbing cretins and trolls with sharp pointy sticks. (Oh, and blogging.) Proud owner of a Nize Hat!, an indomitable SIWOTI syndrome and an itchy snark finger.
You can find all my musical, literary and artistic works at my art blog, Creativitas.
![There is probably no [superstition]. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life](http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad171/crispianjago/Probably-No.gif "There is probably no [superstition]. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life")
![Joé McKen (18) [taken 07/13/10]](http://i.imgur.com/2wvlR.jpg "Joé McKen (18) [taken 07/13/10]")
