Let me begin this post with an explanation: I am NOT Gay! I have no vested interest in what Gays do or don't do. No amount of pressure could make be be gay. I am drawn emotionally and sexually to the opposite sex -- WOMEN.
I don't even remember anyone who brought up the topic of Gay-ness till I was about age 20. (You may have seen the three photos of me in my previous post when I was age two and had long, curly hair and may have come to the conclusion that I just might be a transvestite, however - Mom just loved those curls!)
Therefore, it came as a questionable surprise that ANYONE could be drawn to someone of the same sex. While on my LDS mission, I never even thought of my "companions" as something that I might be sexually attracted to. None made "advances" toward me, and I certainly didn't feel sexually attracted to any of them.
I have since come to know some people who have struggled with their feelings regarding gay-ness. Over my lifetime, I have met and known many -- and laughed at those who are stereotyped on TV shows for their gay-ness.
When I first heard of efforts of some bigots in fundamentalist Christian churches who denounced being gay as synonymous with evil, sinful and stupid, their actions came to me as a surprise. Being an educated social worker, I knew, of course, some whose lives were in turmoil due to sexual preferences and I knew that, for the most part, these people were very misunderstood by everyone -- particularly by those who should be most understanding of people who are abused and hated.
A turning point for me against those dogmatists who hated gays was when I found out that my own church leaders had set aside $500,000 of donated tithing to try to support a gay marriage amendment to the Alaska constitution in the fall of 1998. I had been told that not only was financial support illegal, but that the LDS church only used its contributions for support of chapels, helping the poor and needy, etc.. This came as a shock and initially I couldn't believe it. A letter was even read in church begging the members to support financially this kind of idiocy. Well, I found out that, not only was the church actively involved in this noncharitable activity, but that I was expected to follow the counsel of the brethren, or I would be held to be in violation of my covenants that were taken in the temple to support the local and general leaders of the church.
Of course the old testament has one verse that talks about "stoning" to death gay behavior, but who in their right mind would do that today? The Bible also had laws about stoning women (only women) who commit adultery (heterosexuality). But we would not do that either today, thank goodness and common sense.
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