It's a privately-owned and operated message board. They have every right to tell us what we can and can't say. EDIT: And before anyone accuses me of being a mod ass kisser, posters have been trying in vain for years to make the LPA loosen up the rules on "retard" and homosexual epithets. It ain't happening, so it's not even worth arguing or, at worst, getting banned over.
I completely agree. When you join a society, there are rules that pretty much need to be followed no matter how ridiculous you seem to think they are. In this particular society, the higher ups don't want people to use terms that can come off as sexist/racist/downgrading/etc (i.e. ThaHandyman used the term "homo" which can be seen as being negative to any person on this board who may happen to be homosexual) . It's not like they are enforcing something too complicated to follow.
I can't believe there's still a "debate" over whether or not homosexuality is something you're born with or not. It clearly is something that you just are. Not one credible case/study has been able to proven otherwise. Todd couldn't have said it any better. Saying "I don't think homosexuality is right" is equivalent to saying something like "I don't think being black is right." We're talking about more or less 10% of the human population. Saying something they're born with is wrong and that they shouldn't get to live the way they want to is disgusting if you ask me. I guess there's my weekly homosexual rights rant.
I think we've had like 92891192819281981928389378378444638638532344947394 discussions on the matter here in the past year.
We have, which was in part why I was trying to make light of the situation instead of going back on the same old same old.
This. We have really loosened up over the years. Anyone who was here when LPA first started would remember that we had a swear filter in place and censored words like fuck and shit. We loosened up on that. We've become more lenient on a lot of things, but use of "retard" and "gay" (and all of the variations) in a derogatory manner is something we will firmly stand our ground on and never loosen up on. If someone doesn't want to post here because they can't call this gay and that retarded, then quite honestly, we don't want them as a member here.
That swear filter was awesome, when it used to change "bitch" into "female dog" and "bastard" into "illegitimate child of unmarried parents" and stuff like that.
I didn't mean to cause a tsunami in here, I had a bad day and a very relevant discussion with my dad at the time, who thinks that there's something wrong with me just for the fact that I don't think homosexuals have anything wrong with them, alone. Much less my own sexuality... I may have overreacted in hindsight, but in general when I see someone who I think is being disrespectful for asinine reasons I might approach them and suggest what they're doing is wrong, in the times that I can bring myself to do it. I know it's not in my power to act as a stand in and take matters into my own hands, so I do apologize, not for my beliefs and trying to defend those who have been wronged so many times over, but for the misunderstanding and torrent of explosive commentary that I did not mean to offset. I am all for the freedom of speech, for example, I agree with everything Kathy has said almost word for word, WBC should have the right to say what they want to say and that does include "You're going to hell", which alternative helps strengthen others right to say what they think about WBC, which I think most would agree that they are scum. To sum up, I'm sorry if I caused such temperaments (on the other hand, I do feel it is Good to bring about debates as it helps us get to know more about others beliefs) and that it all got out of hand.
No you didn't cause a tsunami, and I'm glad you spoke up because some people are far too ignorant when it comes to homosexuality. I know it may come off sometimes on this forum that I am totally anti-religion/Christianity, but that is not the case. I have many Christian friends (I'm even sitting next to a devout Christian at work right now), and most Christians are great people and really easy to get along with. What I can't stand however, are the fundamentalist Christians or "whack-job Christians" as I like to call them, that insist on shoving their beliefs down people's throats, picketing funerals (in the case of WBC) or creating laws based on their religious belief (Dont Ask Don't Tell) when the constitution states there should be Separation of Church and State. There is absolutely nothing wrong with homosexuality, or homosexuals in general. It's just like people discriminating against Black people in the 1960s simply just for being Black. There was nothing wrong with Black people, and there's nothing wrong with homosexuals. Let them fuck who they want to fuck. I won't lose sleep over it, and neither should anybody else. Gay Marriage should be a legal reality, and a NON-issue.