FollowUp 3: Sailors Embrace

It should be no surprise that there are strong reactions to the recently viral spread of a picture of a Marine coming home and kissing his boyfriend.  Let's look at two.  First, Peter LaBarbera feigns that he is so disgusted that he blocked part of the picture so you cannot see the two men kissing.  (I wrote feigns because observing homosexuals showing affection in public is something of a hobby for Mr. LaBarbera, easily seen by poking around his website, here is one example that is probably NSFW).

We’ve slightly blocked this indecent photo of a homosexual Marine kissing his “gay” male lover during a homecoming celebration. [See an NPR puff-piece on the twisted kiss HERE.] LGBT activists and pro-homosexuality liberals consider this “progressive,” but truly it represents the moral decline of America, which — as someone smart (not de Tocqueville) once said — will cease to be good if it ceases to be great. (And please don’t pretend that this is no worse than some inappropriate heterosexual “Public Display of Affection.”)

Homosexual conduct is the opposite of good. It is unnatural and a sin against God, who lovingly established boundaries for mankind. Now, military moms and dads and relatives who bring their children to homecomings will be forced to explain this disgusting homosexual misbehavior to their kids. (Note the young child at the right in this photo.) How tragic it is that due to media bias and political correctness, President Obama’s homosexualization of the American military has hardly been an issue in this year’s presidential primary.

Considering that both men were fully dressed, their greeting was neither inappropriate nor would it have been inappropriate had they been of opposite gender.

"Homosexual conduct" is not shown in the picture.  A hug and a kiss while fully dressed are not sexual.  "Homosexual conduct" is not good unless you are homosexual.  If you are heterosexual, then it is good to avoid sex with those of your same gender.  Beyond that, it is none of his business.  By the way, there are zero reports of children being traumatized at that homecoming.  How sad for children that young who are indoctrinated to hate and fear others.

Finally on this bit from Mr. LaBarbera, there was no homosexualization of the military.  Most of the gays who are serving were already serving under DADT.  No straight soldiers or sailors have been altered.  If anything, our fighting units are stronger for having rid themselves of unnecessary secrets.

Thanks to Joe My God for the heads up on this article.

On Saturday, Leonard Pitts wrote an op-ed for the Miami Herald.  This is the other perspective and here is an interesting selection out of the middle of his piece about the Republican stands on social issues:

On issue after issue — gay rights, contraception, labor rights — the goal seems to be to return the nation to the supposed tranquility of its Beaver Cleaver years, before Martin Luther King had his dream, before Betty Friedan wrote her book, before Rock Hudson was gay, before everything changed.

And while it’s doubtful Morgan and Wells set out to make any particular point, the sheer joyousness of their reunion makes one, nonetheless — the same point a similar kiss between two Navy petty officers, both women, made just two months ago. Namely, that you cannot put the toothpaste back in the tube.

Or, as Fleetwood Mac once put it, “yesterday’s gone, yesterday’s gone.”

And the sooner the Grand Old Party concedes that and stops pandering to the bitterness and fear of dead-enders and hardliners still desperately clinging to the broken remains of Beaver Cleaver’s white picket fence, the better off we all will be.

Their fear is that pretty soon, no one will fear, that we are approaching a day when a kiss like this will make no news, merit no attention, because it will be normal. They are right, of course. That is entirely the point.

I could not have written anything better.  Thank you, Mr. Pitts.  That is the right perspective in which to view the greeting between Sgt. Morgan and Mr. Wells.

22 December 2011, Original Pedantic Political Ponderings post.

28 December 2011, FollowUp 1.

28 February 2012, FollowUp 2.