whats your favorite cookie?

i dont know if you're serious or not, but one of the main reasons that i dropped out of the boyscouts (despite reaching the position of senior patrol leader ) was their refusal to admit homosexuals. i understand they are a private organization, but scouting is a great tradition that teaches good values and valuable skills and in my opinion scouting should be for everybody who wants to be a scout.

furthermore i simply wanted to have fun canoeing, kayaking, backpacking, camping, cooking, shooting guns and hiking with some friends. i learned about camping skills, how to fire a weapon, how to use a knife, axe and saw, how to orient a map and find my way with a compass, how to start a fire and make emergency shelters, how to paddle a canoe and a kayak and all SORTS of great things........

but all the emphasis was on earning stupid merit badges and getting different ranks. i just wanted to have fun and go hiking and kayaking and shooting and rappelling.....

i couldnt care less for the uniforms and flag ceremonies and all the other bullshit.

i almost regret quitting, cause there are some great things to take away from scouting....

but i still hate it at the same time.

 

I was serious. They will not admit homosexuals or atheists. I'm an atheist. I left the boyscouts.

 

how come there arent places like this where I live... God Bakersfield SUCKS!!

 

are you gay, nesta?

 

nope.

my older brother is gay. my best friend is a lesbian. as is my ex roommate.

i've also had many friends who are GLBT folks

i dont understand all of it by any stretch. especially the "T" portion.

but i think my brother said it best when he explained about queer folks....

gay people have everything going against them. choosing to be gay would be choosing to be an outcast. choosing to be shunned. choosing to be hated. choosing to be the butt of every joke. choosing, perhaps, to be lynched.

why would anyone choose to be gay?

it was clear from an early age he wasn't straight, anyway.

same with lots of other folks.

nowadays, if you were given a sample of people and he were among them, and you had to choose who was gay, you'd never choose him. as he's also put it here "the only thing i have in common with other gay guys is i like dudes"

you can never tell, and there are gay people everywhere. i'm very strongly convinced that sexuality is a natural and intrinsic part of who you are, and is not a result of making a decision to be attracted to one person or another.

i am not queer, but i am very, very, very strongly in favor of allowing equal rights and status of the GLBT population in relation to the heterosexual majority.

which is not to say i dont dislike a good deal of what is considered "gay culture." much of it is in poor taste and glamorizes unnecessary and dangerous promiscuity. but that can be said about the vast bulk of "hetero culture" too, so who am i to judge?

anyway, i'm not gay personally, and the scouts would have had no grounds on which to throw me out. however, it was among the main reasons i quit, because i felt scouting was a great opportunity for young men and women and i thought it was wrong to ban non heterosexuals (and yes, also atheists, though its less publicized) from joining the boyscouts. i felt that even if i wasn't the victim of discrimination, it was wrong of me to belong to and promote an organization which was prejudiced and descriminatory.


plus there was all the merit badge and achievement bullshit i mentioned, when i just wanted to have fun shooting and camping and hiking and shit!!:cheers2:

 

I like that last bit quite alot. I am all for equal rights. I am just shocked and appalled when I encounter a man who doesnt worship my body like I assume all men do.

 

it's okay, we'll build a bigger altar to make up for him.

 

I meant all womens bodies not just mine Actually in all hoensty Im still scarred from a friendship which would still be there if only he hadnt been gay or I hadnt fallen for him.

 

i wouldnt say i worship your body in particular.

more women in general. :cheers2:

ESPECIALLY beautiful women (like you) but still, the female body in general is quite nice

 

haha thats wht I meant

 

i was too late

{i was also too late to mention that i was too late. woe is me}