Heavy rains didn't stop Gay Pride celebrations today as many took to the streets for this year's Boston Pride Parade, which was titled, "Riots to Rights: 1970-2010." Click through for more scenes from the parade.
Israel, of course, being the only Mideast country to offer legal protection to gays. The ban coincided with the disruption of a Spain-Israel energy conference.
Being an older married man, with children just arriving at adulthood, I don't often mix socially with gay persons.
Last year at a neice's thirtieth birthday dinner, at a trendy inner suburban Sydney restaurant, I had the opportunity to talk with a thirtyish young man; the partner of another thirtyish young man invited as a lifetime friend of my neice.
I'd met the thirtyish friend of my neice on several occasions at family functions involving my neice and her three sisters. They grew up next door to him and all love him dearly. He is terribly handsome and is a fine singer of opera.
Back to his partner. We talked some small talk to find some common ground. He was obviously educated, artistic and political. Without even talking politics we knew that I was a conservative and he was a progressive.
Talk moved to Israel; though neither of us are Jewish. The topic seems to define people.
Without boring you with the details I'll tell you that it ended frostily with me saying something tactless like "you will be the first to be pushed off a building for what you are if they get their way. I'll be second because I'm an atheist and they hate the Godless nearly as much as they hate the Jews".
It had no effect. His mind had been programmed to ignore all this. What did it matter that those he supported loathed him and wanted him dead.
It is rather puzzling, isn't it, that gay people would be anti-Israel, given that Israel is the only country in the Middle East where gay folk aren't persecuted. Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, there's a growing number of gay people who are anti-Israel, and who refuse to acknowledge that Israel is the only democratic haven for gay and lesbians in all of the ME. They refuse to believe that they'd be murdered by Hamas, Hezbollah and the other organized thugs. It does indeed boggle the mind.
I put it down to youth in most cases; but I'm always puzzled by the older people who hold such self destructive views.
I've become a more simple person as I've aged. I work backwards in some ways. If someone wants to kill me and that's their stated aim, my self preservation instinct says I must oppose them. My philosophical view must be wrong if it is against my self interest. When I was a young man I must have thought I was invincible, so it didn't matter that my views were against my self interest!
I'm heterosexual and in my soul I like looking at women - it's not an intellectual thing - so I suppose homosexuals feel the same way when they look at people of the same sex - nothing I can say to change that; as there's nothing they can say to change the way I feel.
But I don't understand why anyone can support someone who wants them dead because of their sexual feelings. Like race, sexual feelings are genetetically coded.
I can only assume that older people who hold views against their self interest are fools.
I have no idea how a homosexual can be anti Israel. But I also don't understand feminists who support Hamas. Lots of people are foolish I suppose.
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Being an older married man, with children just arriving at adulthood, I don't often mix socially with gay persons.
Last year at a neice's thirtieth birthday dinner, at a trendy inner suburban Sydney restaurant, I had the opportunity to talk with a thirtyish young man; the partner of another thirtyish young man invited as a lifetime friend of my neice.
I'd met the thirtyish friend of my neice on several occasions at family functions involving my neice and her three sisters. They grew up next door to him and all love him dearly. He is terribly handsome and is a fine singer of opera.
Back to his partner. We talked some small talk to find some common ground. He was obviously educated, artistic and political. Without even talking politics we knew that I was a conservative and he was a progressive.
Talk moved to Israel; though neither of us are Jewish. The topic seems to define people.
Without boring you with the details I'll tell you that it ended frostily with me saying something tactless like "you will be the first to be pushed off a building for what you are if they get their way. I'll be second because I'm an atheist and they hate the Godless nearly as much as they hate the Jews".
It had no effect. His mind had been programmed to ignore all this. What did it matter that those he supported loathed him and wanted him dead.
The post modern man is mad.
@youcancallmemeyer
It is rather puzzling, isn't it, that gay people would be anti-Israel, given that Israel is the only country in the Middle East where gay folk aren't persecuted. Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, there's a growing number of gay people who are anti-Israel, and who refuse to acknowledge that Israel is the only democratic haven for gay and lesbians in all of the ME. They refuse to believe that they'd be murdered by Hamas, Hezbollah and the other organized thugs. It does indeed boggle the mind.
EI,
I put it down to youth in most cases; but I'm always puzzled by the older people who hold such self destructive views.
I've become a more simple person as I've aged. I work backwards in some ways. If someone wants to kill me and that's their stated aim, my self preservation instinct says I must oppose them. My philosophical view must be wrong if it is against my self interest. When I was a young man I must have thought I was invincible, so it didn't matter that my views were against my self interest!
I'm heterosexual and in my soul I like looking at women - it's not an intellectual thing - so I suppose homosexuals feel the same way when they look at people of the same sex - nothing I can say to change that; as there's nothing they can say to change the way I feel.
But I don't understand why anyone can support someone who wants them dead because of their sexual feelings. Like race, sexual feelings are genetetically coded.
I can only assume that older people who hold views against their self interest are fools.
I have no idea how a homosexual can be anti Israel. But I also don't understand feminists who support Hamas. Lots of people are foolish I suppose.