What is with Lousianna?

[gaystoryman]

So is this true, did the voters of Lousianna actually overwhelmingly vote to deny same sex marraiges and civil unions?

I just heard it on one of our local stations which if true makes me very sad and yet happy that I live up here in Canada.

Anyone know if it is true or not?

[DigitalJay]

My stupid state MO already did it. I'm bummed to be living anywhere but Canada right now, thats the only place I'd really feel at home and I've never even been there. What happens if you are born with a "Canadian mindset" smack in the middle of the US? Not much...

[MiamiB]

Well, that's not really a shock is it...I mean Lousianna is not know for being a flash point of opened mindedness now is it!! I mean, you have the conservative Mid-west...the ultra conservative South and pretty much every where else in the USA.

The USA while pretending to be the most free and openminded country on earth is in reality one of the most conservative, repressed (at least about sexuality) of the modern countries!

I personally blame Christianity for this...

[Rainbo1956]

Originally posted by MiamiB
Well, that's not really a shock is it...I mean Lousianna is not know for being a flash point of opened mindedness now is it!! I mean, you have the conservative Mid-west...the ultra conservative South and pretty much every where else in the USA.

The USA while pretending to be the most free and openminded country on earth is in reality one of the most conservative, repressed (at least about sexuality) of the modern countries!

I personally blame Christianity for this...

I couldn't have said it any better!

[Squirt]

Originally posted by MiamiB
Well, that's not really a shock is it...I mean Lousianna is not know for being a flash point of opened mindedness now is it!! I mean, you have the conservative Mid-west...the ultra conservative South and pretty much every where else in the USA.

The USA while pretending to be the most free and openminded country on earth is in reality one of the most conservative, repressed (at least about sexuality) of the modern countries!

I personally blame Christianity for this...

I'm ashamed to have to agree with you there. After moving to Australia I've found how sexually free a society can be. Being Gay is still not really accepted here and their sense of Gay community is about twenty years behind the times ( no joke )

After traveling to other countries in the Pacific Rim you see how sexually liberal Thailand and other countries are. Pretty interesting. Quite and eye opener. But still .. in America we are more free then any other country and have more rights to proetect us. Here in Australia they have Magistrates ... big headed judges that doll out whatever punishment they see fit with little regulation.

All in all we are better off in America and the conservatism is weakening.

"What is with Lousianna?" .. What ISN'T wrong with Louisiana? I lived there for a month right before coming to Australia and yuck... it's a poster state for the movie Deliverance. Bleah!

[desslock]

Why are people so shocked and surprised all of a sudden? California voted to define marriage as heterosexual several years ago. (2001?) Why the sudden shock over Louisiana??? Nevada and Maine voted against gay marriage in the past couple of years. A lot of people just have a problem with gay marriage. I can't believe that such a concept is really surprising.

Does everybody live in such a bubble they never see other people? And okay - so let's say some middle aged person just has a problem with gay marriage, does that make them homophobic? I don't think so at all.

Now I don't agree with them. And I'm not religious at all. I think attitudes will improve like they have been consistently since I came out in 1987. People are learning. Let the marketplace of ideas win.

I actually am not happy about the gay marriage issue. I think it has highjacked the entire gay rights debate and it is really polarizing. I'm not agreeing whatsoever with excluding us from marraige - but just think a little bit. It is silly to just conclude that Missouri or Louisiana is now a homophobic backwater because of these votes.

And to badmouth the United States is astounding to me as well. Last year the US Supreme Court codified a right to bedroom privacy for all of us. This essentially eliminated any law that can prohibit consentual gay sex -- that's a big deal. That's like Brown v. Board of Education - a cause celebre, as they say :-) [Shall I even mention the S.C.s ruling that the Internet Porn law violates free speech?]

Contrast this with say Egypt, where if you are just sitting there as gay - doing nothing - you will be brought up on charges before the court and incarcerated. And I'm certain that Abu Gharib would look like a jolly garden party to that penal offender.

Just sum thoughts

Steve

[jIgG]

im not at all surprised, i was hoping it won't pass, but as they say in bulgaria hope dies last.

shit, a lot of people still believe people of different races and religions should not marry. We were walking in a certaing large store when this couple - black guy white woman and two awesome kiddos showed up and everyone's giving them those looks like - how could you two be together? One person even stopped and turned around mumbling how wrong it is.

When I lived in Arkansas, my first host family told me there are to be no associations with blacks period. One day after school I had to call them to pick me up, and while waiting outside I started talking, or trying to as I didn't speak english at all, with two black guy, gangy looking at first but real nice otherwise, so "dad" sees me and when I get in the car he's like - if i see you with black people one more time you're going to get deported, and asking why wasn't even an option.

Then I stayed with a preacher who's probably heard all over Arkansas on radio, who said 'All black people think they're all that but they're really stupid and good for nothing', he teached math at school and thought all black students were dumb.

So unfortunately there are things Americans haven't gotten over, the racial issue, religious and sex orientation, even sex in general. When you have parents who're willing to vote Bush because it would be anti-christian not to, even though your son is gay, there's a problem

[dirtygeek]

I was just about to say that Steve. (About CA) Thank god you don't live in Malaysia. My friend over there says that it wasn't to long ago that you could be put to death for being gay.

[MiamiB]

I stated that the USA was the most repressed of the MODERN Developed nations...lets face it...non of those countries you guys have used as examples market themselves as progressive, openminded, and countries on earth now do they...nope they don't! So it is no surprise...it IS a surprise in the USA!!!