Bashing the Gay Bashers

Over at Dispatches, one commenter made the following common claims against homosexuals made by those on the Religious Right:

The higher instances of STDs among homosexuals relative to the general population, depression, suicide, alcoholism, etc.

The last I checked, lesbians had LOWER instances of STDS than the general population. I know, I know, facts tend to unsettle our predjudices, the bastards.

As for male homosexuals, care to reference a study that shows the higher incidence of STDs is not completely related to the higher promiscuity rate of men generally? In other words, how many heterosexual men would have far more sexual partners than they do now, and consequently contract more STDs, were women as unselective on average as men are?

As for the depression, suicide, and alcoholism, you don't suppose having a large proportion of the population telling you that you are evil, that diseases you get were God's punishment for being who you are, that you are unfit to serve in the military, not allowed to have the same legal protections and rights with regard to your loved ones as others are, not allowed to adopt children, having yours taken from you, and beaten up, sometimes to death, by the bright lights of society, being forced to hide who you are to avoid ostracism, being disowned by your family for who you are, that all these things might just elicit some depression, suicides, and a wee bit of elbow-bending to get through the day? Complicated this ain't.

I mean really, what is it with you nutjob Christians that the idea of homosexuality puts you into such a self-righteous, self-contradictory spazz attack? You torment gays, then blame them for being depressed. You condemn gays for not having committed partners, then you fight tooth and nail to keep them from getting the same legal right to do so as everyone else. You preach the virtues of a stable two-parent household, to save the children of course, but to hell with the children if they have a gay parent.

Hell, I'm as heterosexual as one can be, and you twits could make me an activist for gays. I'm convinced it is true, re Ted Haggert, Mark Foley, etc., and even more so that it is the politically expedient thing to espouse, that rabid anti-homosexuals are very often in-the-closet homosexuals themselves. They're religious views cause them to hate themselves, and to fear other gays who might bring them out of the closet, so they compensate by becoming more homophobic than thou.

So you rabid anti-homosexuals, get comfortable with your homosexual side. Who knows, you might like it.