Illinois Family Institute: Keep Your Kids Away From the Kissing Gays!

Many adults do not care to witness obscene and inappropriate kissing

Indeed I do not. I define “obscene and inappropriate” rather differently though. Besides that, the kissing I see in public is nothing of the sort (maybe I’m just in the wrong places. . . or nobody wants to have involved kissing when they smell, since one is instantly sweat-soaked upon going outside here), in which case what’s the difference between a quick kiss between two girl friends and two girlfriends? And for those of cultures where men kiss everyone, why is a quick kiss between male acquaintances different from male partners?

polyamorous kissing? more than two people involved in one kiss? i think i’d be more confused and intrigued than offended if i saw that ;p

Reading that makes me wish I had a gay boyfriend.

So wait, are you saying your boyfriend is straight?

Every time the IFI opens its mouth, Infantile Fundamentalist Idiocy comes out.

After equating consenting adult same-sex kissing with pedophilia and incest, the Proudly Pious Laurie Higgens says this:

What one considers obscene, inappropriate kissing depends on prior presuppositions. What the public deems inappropriate kissing depends on whether a particular kind of relationship is morally legitimate. And many consider homosexual relationships to be morally indefensible no matter how kind the people involved or how much we love them as individuals.

And many consider homosexual relationships to be NOT morally indefensible, but perfectly legitimate. Are we in a democracy of behavioral minutiae where every single action is subject to an election by the majority? Ms. Higgins, more than 50% of the people consider your hairstyle to be fashionably indefensible. Comply with the majority immediately or face charges.

Higgins and her ilk are obsessed with enforcing conformity to their own self-image. Fortunately, our Constitution protects us (so far) from the tyranny of the majority.

So the IFI’s argument against kissing is that they don’t like it. It’s yucky and you might catch the cooties. I’m sorry but my 11 years olds can do better than that.

Hey there aint no such thing as polyamorus kissing it is two people kissing and others watching while waiting their turn. I know the indians always say white man have forked tongue but mine can only go down one person’s throat at a time. Well actually its too short to do even that.

So they’re not against two people kissing… they’re only against it if it involves adults and children, incestuous couples, polyamorous couples (triples?), and gay couples.

What?!?! They left out “man-on-dog?” They NEVER leave that out when they’re marching down the road of perversions that they lump in with just plain being gay, adult and consenting.

If I lived there, I’d go around kissing a dog. But it would be a gay dog.

I like how they condemn incest even between consenting adults. Leaving aside the increased likelihood of genetic defect being passed on if they reproduced… what possible other objection could there be? And what the hell does “obscene kissing” between adults and children have to do with this kissing event, anyway? I’ll give them the outside chance that there might be a gay incest couple there (not that even straight incestuous couples are even super-common), but how likely is it that we’ll suddenly see a bunch of committed pedophiles come out with their long-time romantic interests? Or is this just an echo of the long-discredited conservative/Christian attempt to make some kind of connection between homosexuality and pedophilia?

I find the incest-bashing especially funny to hear that after seeing the Creation “Museum” exhibit about how Cain got his wife via incest, but it was okay just that one time because it had the Yahweh Seal of Approval (TM).

I’m as bothered by seeing straight couples kissing in public as I am by gay couples doing likewise, but I figure that’s my problem and not something I need to insist that others imitate. Seriously.

As a member of one of those “multi-partner unions” I have to wonder… given the previously mentioned difficulty inherent in kissing more than one individual at a time, how can the IFI be sure they’re properly identifying all instances of obscene kissing?

If I kiss my husband in public and my boyfriend isn’t there, is that still obscene? How about if I kiss my husband, and his girlfriend is within sight, but she brought her own date?

Considering we’re all (currently) in heterosexual configurations, how would they know we were “perverts” without stalking us? Will their children still be damaged by our kissing if we’re never positively identified as polyamorous?*ponders*

This is one of the more awesome comments I’ve seen in this blog. What a huge gaping hole you have just placed in that argument. Bravo!

20 years ago, in Boston, I had a boyfriend who liked to take long walks with me on weekends. We’d walk from one end of Boston to the other, going through the public gardens and the public common along the way. While walking, we often held hands.

Mothers with babies in strollers would stop, cover their baby’s eyes so baby couldn’t see us holding hands, and give us dirty looks. Little old ladies with blue hair would spit at us. Passing young men would call us “perverts” and “faggots”.

It’s easy to freak the mundanes in this country. They’re so very, very mundane.

Things are rather better in Boston now. Gay couples holding hands or kissing in public remain uncommon, but are no longer unheard of and go largely un-remarked-upon. But, go just an hour out of the city and life is very different. I was recently dating a guy from a medium sized town in New Hampshire, and when he visited me in Boston, he was afraid to hold hands or kiss me if he wasn’t sure nobody was around and nobody was looking. I assured him we were quite safe, but he was simply too afraid.

The country needs to see gay guys kissing. Children need to see it. Everyone needs to confront the sight and learn to be able to say “yeah, whatever.” Otherwise, we gay guys will always be second class citizens.

Yeah, Mehta, I can just see you with a boyfriend walking through the park 😉

What happens when the children of these religious believers turn out to be gay or lesbian? What a painful moment that must be for a young man or woman born into a religious family.

The suicide rate among gay and lesbian teens is about thirty percent higher than the national average. Intolerant families and communities have a lot to do with that.

Brian, I’m confused. I just read through the article and all the comments favoring the article. They all gave opinions about the Higgin’s opinion on whether such kissing should be allowed in public. None of them said that she didn’t have a right to hold that opinion, just that the opinion was a wrongly held opinion.

Personally, I would fight tooth and nail to allow someone the right to espouse an opinion that I would shout from the rooftops to oppose. That’s what free speech is. The fact that we’re opposed to her opinion and think she is harming society with her pious self-righteous attempts at dampening other’s expression of happiness has nothing to do with her right to hold or express those opinions.

Of course, her letters to the school board are more than just an expression of free speech. That was an attempt to keep Mehta from expressing his opinion. She was obviously trying to affect his employment because she didn’t like what he said in his blog.

So, I’m opposed to her opinion about kissing and I’m opposed to her attempts to censor free speech. Though, I still support her right to hold and express those opinions, just not at the expense of others.