Sinister: Where to start....

[Ailsa Ross]

Well first off, anyone wanting to know my views on the whole subject of
depression can search the archives to their hearts content, especially
anyone who thinks B&S songs are too happy.  Also, people who think you
have to talk it like you walk it.  Look at comedians like Paul Merton,
Caroline Aherne, Spike Milligan.  All depression sufferers at one time
or another and you don't hear them banging on about it all the time. 
Not like Thom Yorke or little teenage Manics fans.  Not that I am
accusing them of faking it, but we don't need to hear it all the time. 
This has all been covered a while ago, so onto something else:

Namely, the whole gay/Catholic thing.

Amongst other loads of contentious ill-thought out arguments (now Chris,
I understand you didn't think them out, but do you have to swallow
(ahem) them quite so whole-heartedly?), was this gem...

> I personally don't believe that a homosexual lifestyle
> and family environment(ie. - katy stays with ron and
> dave, or whatever that book was) should be promoted as
> a replacement for a hetrosexual family environment, as
> it CANNOT BE EQUAL - there are two 'fathers' or
> 'mothers'.

Does this mean that anything without one father and one mother is
wrong?  OK, your (and formerly my) church see divorce as wrong, but what
of in the case of bereavement?  What if one finds oneself with one
mother and NO father through no fault of your own?  What's your God
thinking of by depriving you of the normal family environment that seems
so bloody important?

Also this one:

> However, it [the Catholic Church] does not agree with
> homosexual acts (ie. sex) due to it's definition of
> the purpose of sex. It believes that sex is a sign of
> commitment in a permanent loving relationship.

I am currently in as near to a permanent relationship as I would imagine
possible, and don't need to be married to know that it will last (the
wedding's for the family and all the other shit that goes with being
married - I don't think "but we won't break up, honest" will convince in
a court of law no matter how convinced we both are of it), so by your
definition we are allowed to have sex (like we need the permission of
any church) as we are in a permanent loving relationship.  What about
monogamous gays?  These do exist, unless you think all gays are just
like Stuart out of Queer as Folk, which they aren't.  

Also the bit about just to produce children as a reminder of your love. 
Why are people impotent and infertile?  If you are a happily
monogamously married Catholic, if you find out you are infertile, do you
have to stop having sex as you aren't going to produce children?  What
about when you hit the menopause?

Let's continue:

> Apparently some grown men have had
> to walk around with nappies due to damage caused to
> their arse muscles. our re teacher told us that. he
> also told us how lesbian sex 'happens'. That whole
> fisting malarkey was news to me. 

And your RE teacher is one of these Keep the Clause types, I presume.  I
mean, you aren't ALLOWED to promote homosexuality as an acceptable
lifestyle, so what better way not to than to tell people it's scary and
evil and bad for you?  As if Catholic guilt wasn't bad enough...How does
he know how lesbian sex happens by the way?  And does that mean anything
a woman does to a woman is wrong is it's done to her by a man instead? 
Or is it not the nature of the act, just the perpetrator's gender?  This
is all horribly confusing and I certainly wouldn't want it explained
like this to my kids.  It's all a little bit fascist.

Finally:

> I don't think that promoting homosexuality in schools
> will change anything, because bigoted attitudes, are
> more often than not, created in the home, and no amout
> of persuading by a teacher will change a childs views
> from what thier parents taught them. If the parents
> were not bigoted, then neither would the children be.

Do your paretns share these attitudes, and if so why are you laying it
all at the feet of your teacher, if no amount of persuading by them
would sway you from what your parents told you first?  So how do you
suggest we stop the next generation from growing up as bigots, if you
can't teach them and bigotry is inherited?  I used to cringe as a child
when my dad referred to people as poofs and darkies and the like, but
he's got more tolerant as he's got older and as our generation have
shown people like him that basically people are the same no matter what
colour their skin or what they get up to behind closed doors with
another consenting adult.  

I hope we are all boycotting Stagecoach buses by the way.  For those of
you not aware of what Struan was getting at, Brian Souter, the owner of
Stagecoach buses and one of the richest businessmen in Scotland has
offered an obscenely large amount of money to the Keep the Clause
campaign, also backed by the Daily Record which Starry has already
advised you to bombard with your junk.  Do you think they'd get away
with "get these blacks out of our homeland" or "Fascism lessons for all"
campaigns?  Doubt it...

I would like to say I think Chris is perfectly entitled to his opinion,
but I just get the sneaking suspicion that it's not really his opinion
at all, just something he's learnt from an early age like his three
times table or the alphabet.  But if I'm wrong, and intelligent people
genuinely believe there is something intrinsically wrong about wanting
to have sex with someone you love, then I lose a little more hope every
day.

Golly this was rather serious wasn't it.  I sort of promised myself I
wouldn't get up on my high horse about this sort of stuff any more.  But
what the hell eh?

Ailsa xx
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