Hi!

I'd like to thank you for reading and commenting on my column. Whether or not you agree with me, I don't particularly care- I'm more interested in having people hear what I have to say and react to it.
Furthermore, I appreciate the fact that you are well read and have formed specific political opinions. Unfortunately, I have seen a noted lack of interest about the issues, especially gay rights, among GLBT people.
I thoroughly read your comment and would like to answer some concerns you have about certain arguments I have made. Regarding the lack of cites, I apologise- my endnotes did not translate into the online forums well. I will post them in my next column.

As for your concerns:
1. "'It is common for a liberal to accuse someone of being a fag and a homophobe in the same sentence.' I'd like to see where you have evidence for this. I have never heard or read anything like this in my entire life, except in writings like yours, which are usually made by people who dislike liberals."

Well, I'm glad you aren't frequenting the far-left websites which engage in the practices I have mentioned.(These are the same ones that accuse Isreal of plotting 9/11. If you don't believe that THESE exist, you need only visit google.com and type in, "isreal" and "9/11") I'll be glad to take the time to give you 1 example. It shouldn't be to hard to find some others yourself, considering that Michael Rogers published a full-page ad in the New York Times outing gays.

Go to:
-ACTION: Email Jay Timmons. And a names update.-
Monday, July 26, 2004
(http://www.blogactive.com/2004_07_01_blogactive_archive.html)

2."Democrats are not defined by despising those in the military."

That is absolutely true. However, most elected Democrats do, including major Democratic figureheads such as, Ted Kennedy, Barbara Boxer, and my own senator, the "great" Dick Durbin who compared our fighting men to "nazis", and our own military installations to "gulags." (By the by, there have been only 250 credible accusations of abuse out of 50,000 detainees during this war. That's less than 1/2 of 1 percent. And it isn't a smear if it's true and not a matter of personal privacy.

3."And really, the whole democrats want communism is a total load of crap. Failing to support massive tax cuts does not equal socialism or communism."

Perhaps, but supporting a National Health System and cozying up to murderers and barbarians like Fidel Castro does.

See the: "Cuban Solidarity Act" supported by Democrats and one nutty Republican and former KKK leader.

"We have money. More so than a lot of other people. My father defines himself as an independent liberal..."

All of the communist revolutionaries of this century have been members of the "bourgeoisie" class- and look at Hollywood. But... I'm not saying your a communist.

4."And asking, "What have the democrats done for gays . . ." is kind of a useless question. However little they have done, they've done far more than republicans so far."

The problem with this argument is that liberals have accomplished NOTHING in the last decade concerning gay rights except for saying nice things about us on the Senate floor where their constituants cant hear them- unless of course they watch C-span 24/7. I'll gladly admit that Republicans have done little in terms of gay rights. However, all the Democrats have done is talk- and talk is cheap. So how can the Dems claim the GLBT vote and label others who don't go along as "self-loathing" when the Dems have done nothing to earn it. Prove me wron and find something big they have done for us on a national level in the last dacade and I will concede this point.

5."And I seem to remember the issue of gay marriage being shoved down people's throats not by democrats, but rather by the ultra-conservative wing of the republican party who were screaming about the sanctity of marriage being destroyed."

Firstly, a very small fraction of the Republican party are ultra-conservatives. And I will note that all of the figureheads of the GOP are moderates, including John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, and Ken Mehlman.
Secondly, it could be argued that it was far-left judges who "shoved it" down America's throat by legislating from the bench- a BIG no no in our Constitution. (I'd also like to mention that in the case of Mass., the only gay justice on the Mass. Supreme Court has come out against the court's actions.)
I believe that the courts legislating same-sex marriage is the wrong and undemocratic way of going about this. Do you really want 9 unelected individuals deciding the policy of your nation?
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. worked for months in Montgomery, AL to desegregate the public buses. While the courts decided that case, Dr. King's intentions were not to just desegregate the city buses- Montgomery is just one city. No, his true intentions were to enflame the public against racial descrimination by demonstrating. HE DID NOT GO THROUGH THE COURTS, HE WENT THROUGH THE PEOPLE.
We live in a democracy(thank God!), therefore unless we liberal and conservative gays alike can unite our resolve to convince the PEOPLE, instead of the courts, all is lost.

5.Lastly, when I referred to people acting like robots, I didn't just mean liberals, I also meant the Jerry Falwell right wingers who don't think for themselves. The only way to keep this robot-type thinking is to see from other points of view and question our own. That is why I encourage you and other liberal individuals to read what I have to say and to CRITICIZE it.

Anyhow, I like being kept on my toes. :-D

Yours truly,
p.

"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have."

-Thomas Jefferson-