Gays and paedohiles - "they're all the same"

[sp1814]

Can someone explain why some people cannot recognise the difference between a relationship between two adults, and the forced sexual relationship (often accompanied by threats) between an adult and a child?

I've just read a thread where someone commented along the lines of 'paedophilia is bad but two men togther is not far behind".

How popular is this (slightly bizarre) point of view?

Is it the natural extention of the Pope's claim that saving the world from homosexuality is "Like saving the rainforests"

The rants of religious dinosaurs, or somehing genuine concern?

[Answerprancer]

You'll find it's even 'worse' there Doc, there's no escaping it ..sweetie ;-)

[Huderon]

andy-hughes, my understanding is that the Catholic church doesn't have a problem with people's sexual orientation, it's just putting it into practice that they see as morally wrong. Islam also has the same attitude (but with much more serious consequences for the participants), and for all I know Judaism does too. Not forgetting the Greek and Russsian orthodox churches, the Coptics, the Anglicans and most other Christian churches.
sp1814, attitudes change over time and the kids today don't see anything strange about homosexuality and accept it as a perfectly normal way of life for some people. It's SOME of the older people who have that attitude, so give it a few more generations, when today;s kids ahve grown up and reached the dizzy heights of the Christian churches and you might see attitudes in the clergy and the population in general relax and with luck idiotic statements like that will become extremely rare

[Mosaic]

Loving Antinous did not make Emperor Hadrian evil, perverted, or anything less than a pretty good leader.
I think you will all have known far more gay men than you will ever realise - just people for the main part, not screaming queens or predators.
Paedo's are different - it is recorded in 'Germania' that they were executed by the community throwing them into a shallow bog, then throwing a hurdle (ie a larch-lap fence panel) on top, then all leaping up and down thereon until the bubbles stopped.
I love the ancient world.

[joeluke]

Sex between two males was illegal in this country until 1967

So what suddenly turned it from being a crime into being 'normal'?

[jackthehat]

^The Wolfenden report, in the main.............

[Mosaic]

Is there an echo in here Joeluke?

[sara3]

by the same token, joeluke, racism/sexism/ageism (etc) was acceptable (by some) until the world woke up to such prejudices.

we've moved on, it's the 21st century and we're (well, most of us are) reasonable, well-adjusted people.

[andy-hughes]

anneasquith - the simple answer is because women are more secure about themselves, and more tolerant as a rule than their male counterparts.

Men were always raised to be 'tough' and 'real men' which always sat uneasily with the stereotypical image if a gay man as camp. As I said, tolerance grows with each generation, and hopefully will continue so to do.

joeluke - nothing turned an illegal act into a 'normal' one, it simply ceased to be illegal.

Homosexuality is a fact of life. It's not a disease, or a lifestyle choice, it is an aspect of humanity, and fortunately, the majority of humanity is now more able to accept that just because something is different does not make it wrong per se.

In the same way that accepting long hair on men, and the sexual freedom of The Pill became the norm eventually, society changes and adapts to its members, and the lessons of acceptence and tolerance eventaully reach out everywhere where no harm is being done in the way people live their lives.

[sp1814]

Huderon

That seems to be a lot of logic in your post. It appears that each new generation becomes more relaxed about the very same issues that had their parents and grandparents frothing at the mouth.

[zita-green]

Shakespeare, Alexander the Great, Sappho, Carol Anne Duffy...

[sp1814]

joeluke

You wrote:

Sex between two males was illegal in this country until 1967
So what suddenly turned it from being a crime into being 'normal'?

No - it was decriminalised in 1967. Imagine a law which dictated that two consenting adults couldn't have a relationship.

Silly when you think about it.

Nothing 'suddenly' changed - it was evolution rather than revolution. When women got the vote, it's not because women 'suddenly changed'.

[Mosaic]

I thought the law got changed in '67 because the cops were fed up with all the MPs and toffs they kept finding picking up rough trade in gentlemen's conveniences up west.

[mike11111]

"Sex between two males was illegal in this country until 1967"
Actually only between 1885 and 1967, as a result of an amendment to the Criminal Libel Act of 1885,apart from the specific act of sodomy, which until the mid 19th C remained a capital crime.

[anneasquith]

i truly wish the next generations will be more accepting of gay people, but not too sure they will, if you are parented by a bigot do you then carry on that ethos ? back to the issue , nature or nurture

[zita-green]

That's why I can't accept religions: they say that love is 'wrong'.

[joeluke]

sp1814

"Imagine a law which dictated that two consenting adults couldn't have a relationship"

Siblings?

[anneasquith]

thats rubbish joe. you are protesting too much i feel. ?

[sp1814]

anneasquith

Re: nature of nurture.

No-one can be 100% sure, because in order to answer that question, you would have to take two kids and two sets of parents and send them off to a desert island and raise one kid 'gay' and the other one 'straight' and see what takes.

Problem is - if it IS nature and the gay kid grew up gay - how could you tell?

However, saying that, my guess is that whether you're gay or straight, it's most likely to be from birth...you can't get someone to fancy someone they don't feel sexually attracted to.

...this is why Katie Price's career is on the rocks.