First I thought the animousity was towards me, then I realized the post after mine had been deleted, so I found it, read it, ok, glad not to have phoenix mad at me :)
I don't think he can defend his point of view without throwing down a bible because it involved hell. And since hell is a biblical subject "kinda", he really wouldn't be able to.
I think people should feel free to hate anyone and everyone they want. I like to think that no matter how much one side is hated, they should still have the right to exist as long as they aren't going out of their way to harm those around them. Of course those kinds of things start getting hard to determine sometimes.
An example: I believe in the right for video games, tv shows, etc to be as incredibly violent imagineable, have as much sexual references as can be, etc. But what if it were proved 100% that if such violence and sex were 100% removed from our society by some magic wand that our kids would end up growing up to be calmer, more mature people. If that were the case, what would be the value of still allowing sex and violence in our media? Keep in mind I don't believe people would be much different since I think its the fact that we are over-intelligent, hierarchal group-oriented primates, but I'm just giving an example.
If it was found that more gays/lezbians in society resulted in a larger percentage of children growing up to be homosexual, what does that mean to us as a society? Maybe nothing, especially to homosexuals who often would be happy by that result. But logically, if you have 1 son, are you going to be happy by the increased possibility that your genetic lineage is going to die off?
People often say things like "if homosexuality was genetic, it would have been bred out long ago, so it must be society". Those people are overlooking the fact that many nobility throughout history looked at women as a way to procreate and men as a way to have pleasure (not sure how that can be, would think it would be the reverse except men can't be used for procreation, which just leaves us with everyone should be worshipping women, maybe it was the lack of good birth control back then). In our current society its less likely than it was that a homosexual man will end up with a child. Some people might respond to something like this with "our population is growing too fast, this isn't a problem", but they would be igoring the problem, which isn't whether "society" is growing too fast or not, its more likely to be the fear of their child not procreating. Of course I don't know if arbitrary studies have been done like this, but it "seems" like there are more open homosexuals than there were, and before homosexuals were likely to try and pretend to have a normal family life and thus would continue the family line.
So with that mentality, I can see the rising openness of homosexuality as being threatening on many levels (religious, personal fear, fear for family) to people, and some may be valid from their own perspective.
Luckily for me, I have no intention to have children, I'm non-religious, and I'm only mildly homo-phobic (I like to think no more so than your average guy). ;) For others, I don't think anyone has the right to try and say their fear,dislike, hatred, etc shouldn't be allowed to exist, its only acting on that fear,dislike, hatred that should be restricted/barred/prevented.
After all, in America, if someone has the right to "be", "say", and "do" nearly anything that doesn't harm those around them or society in general, surely people can feel something as simple as an emotion in their own head without being told they aren't allowed to.
Richard M.
Grimfang"Whisper"Xaeraes