<p>I attended a speech given by Barney Frank last night and he brought up some good points. Namely why is government interested in what goes on in the bedroom of consenting adults? Why isn’t government more interested in how many children go to bed hungry or why so many children are homeless?
BTW Hep B is much more contagious than HIV
I know, I have it. But I would love for someone to tell me where I got it. I haven’t had sex with anyone besides my spouse for the last 25 years, I contracted it apparently about 13 years ago. My spouse and kids are all negative so where did I get it?</p>
<p>( I realize this is way off topic from teh original post but those issues appear to be resolved- ya kids!)</p>
<p>Have you had any blood transfusions during your life? </p>
<p>Also, I worked in a hospital lab for 6 years. Back in the old days, we used to handle blood products without gloves (pre-AIDS days). Any cut in the skin that comes in contact with the blood of someone who has had Hep B has the potential to infect.</p>
<p>Emerald-- did you have Rhogam injections after the birth of your children? I believe it was made with live blood cultures back in the '80’s when folks like us had our kids…</p>
<p>I have not had any transfusions- I have not had any injections. ( I did have progestorone injections in 1982- when I was pregnant with oldest D)
I had my last child in 1990- during that pregnancy was tested for misc things all negative. When I went to give blood in about 1993 after I had quit nursing- the blood bank identified that I had Hep B and couldn’t donate. Everyone else was tested, no one else has it in our family- as far as I can figure I have a very active dream life
I have also been told Hep lives on surfaces and can be transmitted quite easily-the only thing I can think of is that my dentist didn’t sterilize properly ( something I can believe he was a crappy dentist- don’t go there anymore) or that one of the kids in the toddler coop with my younger D had it and when helping them wash or whatever, I got it.
Pretty strange- I like to think that when I go to the dentist things are nice and clean :)</p>
<p>I’m sure if we added up the cost of “hetero” sex consequences–STD’s, unwanted pregnancies and taxpayer support for either outcome, infertility treatments for those damaged by STDs, etc…that those concerned from a money angle have just as much to beef about.</p>
<p>texas- actually I am fine- I just can’t donate blood.
I apparently contracted HepB , recovered and made antibodies without even realizing I had more than a bug.
I just wanted to remind people while AIDS and HIV are very deadly and still out there- there are also other diseases which also affect the general population and also need funding.
I don’t think diseases should be funded according to if we think that those who contract the diseases are "innocent " or not.
My daughter when she was a premature baby weighing less than 2lbs in the hospital 23 years ago had many transfusions- this was right before teh blood was tested for HIV, because our president felt that it was a “gay” disease and therefore did not affect a percent of the population that deserved protection.
And this is the party that holds itself up as the party of values?</p>
<p>I’m a fairly new poster here, but it’s a little troubling to see that s many supposedly open-minded people have their minds open only to those who agree with them. While I personally would have no problem with my S having a gay roommate, and neither would he, I also understand that a boy might feel uncomfortable in that situation. That doesn’t make him a bigot or prejudiced - it is neither bigoted not prejudiced to think that a gay man might look at you more pruriently than would a straight man; their sexual interests are part of what defines them. And Calmom, if you are going to bandy the First Amendment around, do it with an understanding of what it does. It protects speech against government action only, not against private action. It has no application in a private school. And if you think no one can get into trouble at a private school for what they say, you have missed the publicity about “offensive speech” policies at many schools. These schools are quick to take action against un-politically correct utterances.</p>
<p>it is neither bigoted not prejudiced to think that a gay man might look at you more pruriently than would a straight man</p>
<p>so let me get this straight ( pun)
you would consider a roommate change on the basis of what someone might be thinking
If it doesn’t translate into action/behavior, should we even be concerning ourselves with what someone thinks about?</p>
<p>First, if you read the thread carefully, you would see the vnewyork seems to have resolved his situation to his satisfaction. I don’t think vnewyork was bigoted or prejudiced in voicing his concerns and I don’t remember anyone else saying so. Others who have posted on this thread I’m afraid are homophobic (despite their strenuous denials to the contrary).</p>
<p>Second, having an open mind does not mean entertaining every and any opinion as worthy of consideration and respect. Should we have our “minds open” to racist opinions? Should we have our minds open to antisemitic views? Should we be open to homophobia? Should we “be open minded” about the ideas of bin Laden and those that advocate the murder of innocent people?</p>
<p>Emeraldkity4 - Please read what I actually wrote. I would not change my room simply because my roommate was gay - I just said I understood if someone felt differently. And yes, I think changing rooms because of what your roomate thinks is not unreasonable. I am Jewish, and if my roommate expressed Nazi sympathies, I would not want to live with him. I wouldn’t need an overt action.</p>
<p>Dennis - I think you make a fair point. Being open minded doesn’t require that you be open to extreme and harmful views. Perhaps we just draw the line at a different place. Because homosexuality is a circumstance that defines actions and feelings, whereas race, for example, is not, I find it less offensive if someone is troubled by rooming with a gay person then if someone is offended by rooming with someone of another color. Think of me what you will.</p>
<p>*I agree with patuxent. I think homosexuality is probably a disease released by God upon the gays to wipe them off the face of the earth.</p>
<p>I, for one, have never known a heterosexual person to contract AIDs without the use of needles. Any reported case would probably be fabricated.
*
OMG the ignorance just floors me
So if God decides to smite in that way- I suppose we can also conclude that he is not too happy with the Boy Scout organization lately?</p>
<p>I also firebad- did not say anything about expressing I said * thinking* for most of us- two different things
You were referring to what someone might think while they were “looking” at you, nothing about if they acted or even expressed their thoughts, you didn’t even want them to glance at you-I suspect that what you may be afraid of is that someone wouldn’t be attracted- do you find that all women are attracted to you regardless of your interest level?
With gay men it would be the same- they aren’t necessarily going to be interested, especially if you make it clear you are not.</p>
<p>SeaLocust, I know a resolutely heterosexual with HIV who contracted it from a transfusion (yes a needle, but he was having non-elective surgery, so what are you gonna do?) It is a medically documented case, as are the thousands of infants who are neither homosexual nor heroin users.</p>
<p>Sexual orientation, like race, gender, etc., is something determined by genes. It is an essential part of our identity as people. It isn’t “actions” or “feelings” but something much more essential and determined. Try and eliminate your sexual orientation and you will find it impossible. Of course, we can control what we actually do and how we respond to our basic orientation. This is true of heterosexuals and homosexuals.</p>
<p>Hence, prejudice based on sexual orientation is no different in essence than prejudice based on race and is just as wrong no matter if it feels “less offensive.” It only seems this way because prejudice based on sexual orientation is seen as reasonable and justifiable by some (and some claim God on their side as well). However, when I was young, prejudice based on race was considered by some to be perfectly reasonable and justifiable (and ordained by God). It was sometimes masked by all kinds of politeness and assurances of fairmindedness. Yet it was there.</p>
<p>Today, things have changed somewhat regarding racism but homophobia is still widely prevalent. As with racism, only by understanding and eliminating prejudice will it disappear.</p>
<p>“Sodomist” is an unnecessary pejorative. And being gay is not a “choice.” </p>
<p>TheDad - do you have another word for sodomy that won’t get me in even deeper trouble with the moderators? </p>
<p>Orientation may not be a choice but acting on it is. Wanting to have relations with young children may not be a choice but engaging in them is a choice and it is illegal.</p>
<p>Interestingly somebody mentioned experiments to reorient homosexuals and the alleged failure. Modern science has been equally unsuccessful in rehabilitating child morlesters however there is strong evidence that many of these twisted souls are made not born. Very large numbers of them were themselves abused as children. So evidence that you cannot reorient a persons sexual desires does not indicate that sexual orientation is innate anymore than failure to get a person with a broken spinal column to walk again is proof that paraplegics are born that way.</p>
<p>Anyway the bottom line for me is that NYU hasn’t the right though they evidently have the power to tell people who they must associate with and on what grounds they may object to them. The Spanish Inquisition lives on in the Student Housing Department.</p>
<p>This thread is getting inappropriately nasty, I think, so I will write one last thing and then further sayeth I naught. Emeraldkity4 - your last post directed toward me was obnoxious. I don’t think all women are interested in me. In fact, seeing myself in the mirror I marvel that my wife is even interested in me. But while I am perfectly comfortable showering and walking around naked in a mens locker room, I would not be comfortable doing it in a womens locker room - even though they would not likely jump me. I can also understand being reluctant to do it in front of gay men. If you claim you can’t even understand someone feeling this way, then I suspect you are kidding yourself. Dennis - you are being, perhaps intentionally, dense. Homosexuality may well be genetically determined, but it is still an identity defined by ones feelings and actions, unlike race,which is defined by an immutable skin color wholly unrelated to feelings and actions.</p>
<p>After reading through this entire post, one littered with uses of the word “sodomist” instead of homosexual, thinly veiled bigotry, an argument that AIDS does not affect the heterosexual community, and one San Franciscan (!!) college bound kid who’s worried that his gay roommate at NYU (!!!) might be attracted to him (really, don’t flatter yourself)…i have one thing to say:</p>
<p>people honestly believe that homosexuality is a choice?!!? what sane and rational being would CHOOSE to live a lifestyle that opens him/her up to the kind of hatred and prejudices routinely imposed on homosexuals by our society? (many of which can be read in this thread?)</p>
<p>gosh. props to your roommate, kid, for being openly gay in a world where that is hard to do. as for your original post—i don’t really get what your discomfort is about. contrary to popular belief, gay men are not some kind of wild sexual predators, and issues that may come up (being “sexiled,” messiness, general communication and getting along) are not exclusive to having a homosexual roommate. relax. gay’s not contagious. give him a chance, you might find that–gasp–you can actually be friends.</p>
<p>“should we even be concerning ourselves with what someone thinks about?”</p>
<p>Isn’t that the very essence of the ever so PC hate crimes laws that the homosexual community is actively pushing? Five years for assault and battery - 10 years if he was “Gay” and you called him a homo in the arguement that preceeded the beating but followed the fender bender.</p>
<p>“Sexual orientation, like race, gender, etc., is something determined by genes.”</p>
<p>There is not a shred of evidence that homosexuality is genetically determined. In fact all scientific evidence is to the contrary. If it were heretible it would follow some sort of Mendelian distribution in families and it would certainly be evident in identical twins.</p>
<p>On the contrary, there is quite a bit of scientific evidence from a variety of kinds of studies (genetic, hormonal, neuroanatomical) that sexual orientation has a biological origin. Anyone can find the evidence via internet sources as long as they have the ability and sense to sort through all the homophobic polemic out there.</p>
