Hedonists should stick together

While being aware of my heterosexual privilege, I find it useful to remind myself that my choices as a woman and as a person who lives openly with a man she is not married to that I cannot afford to ignore those who wish to use the law to force their beliefs about proper sexual behavior and/or gender roles on the rest of us. I found this article through The Sideshow and I thought it had some points that all straight people need to remember:

Well, that sure settles any lingering doubts about the appropriateness of media discussion of Maya Keyes, doesn't it? Anyone who doubts that Keyes' own conflicted family situation is playing a role in the aggressive homophobia he showed at the Republican convention really has zero clue about what life is like for gay kids in families. You might want to read up on a subject "where the personal is inextricably - and dramatically - bound up in the political." Yes, it's a sensitive issue, but since when is it a journalist's job to avoid those?

I am and continue to be perplexed by people who think there is something unseemly about pushing a politician's private life in his face if he's trying to make laws dictating your private life. I'm sorry, but if you have a stance that things that aren't your business should be, then we have a right to get into your business.

It's simple--you believe that people should be let alone, you will be let alone. If you believe that the law should discriminate against homosexuals, then any homosexual behavior will be held against you, and on top of that you will have to explain to people how you deal with your homosexual children. You put yourself out as a "moral" leader, you owe that much to people. Same with abortion--you tell others it's wrong, you better not except yourself and your children, as Bush has almost surely done. So on and so forth.

Gay rights are an important issue because it's about more than civil rights for a minority. It's about drawing a line that others are not to cross--family and sexual life are not to be interfered with or judged by our supposed leaders. And if they leave us alone, we will do the same for them.