Florida Agenda

Documentary About Gay Adoption Shows Disgusting Side of Freedom of Speech

By DMITRY RASHNITSOV

CNN, the only 24 hour news network that has chosen to stay bi-partisan on the political spectrum, is dedicating a significant amount of Internet bandwidth to an area called “Gay in America”. One of the first television hours dedicated to this subject was Soledad O’Brien’s documentary titled “Gary and Tony Have A Baby”, which aired last week during primetime.

The hour-long program followed Gary and Tony, a couple who had been in a monogamous relationship for more than 20 years wanted to have a child of their own. Gary had already donated his sperm to a lesbian couple and had a biological daughter, but him and Tony decided they wanted a child to raise on their own, make decisions for individually, and generally just love. They decided to go the route of surrogacy. They hired one lady to donate her egg. They went to a doctor and had that egg mixed with Gary’s sperm and then have the resulting embryo implanted into another lady. Overall the process was more than a year-long and cost them upwards of $100,000. In the end, the couple ended up with a beautiful baby boy. After the hour-long special, CNN.com has blown up with more than 10,000 comments from people regarding the story. Right from the beginning, the commentators took a very negative slant.

“Gay people…for crying out loud…please think of the child first. You need to get selfish and think about how this child is going to handle such a situation. You may be able to handle it ok. But remember that we all deal with the same situation differently,” said Mintymint.

“Heterosexuals is what keeps society going not homosexuals. It is a lifestyle that is against GOD, nature and everything that makes sense. 2 Men holding hands saying they are married in some kind of perverse ceremony makes no sense. So what they love on one another, who cares and what give,” said TootsMahone.

“Protect traditional marriage at all costs! Homosexuals are trying to destroy this with their alien lifestyle, while heterosexuals have already been destroying it through adultery, divorce, and gold-digging. Gays, straights, it doesn’t matter. Nobody cares anymore about universal traditional marriage which should be between a man and a woman, and until death do you part,” said BlackRifle.

“Here is an idea for a CNN documentary: “Todd & Mary want an open marriage and kids”, shows how Todd and his wife Mary traded in the archaic concept of monogamy (& adultery) for physically loving relationships with anyone who’s interested,” wrote Quest4Trueth.

Not only did the documentary show two loving, caring fathers, who were willing to pay six-figures just to be able to have a child, let alone the cost to care for one, but clearly it shows that no matter how willing a person is to be a parent, the majority of Americans still believe that gays cannot raise a child.

It’s amazing that so many people could write so many negative comments anonymously, but they would never say anything like this to a gay couple in person. It’s people like this that are helping to keep the Florida laws against gay parents adopting in place.

The commentator Aboveknee makes a valid point, “Oh come On! Do We Have to See This Sh*t!” No Aboveknee we don’t have to see your ugly hateful stuff. We will prevail.

Freedom of speech works two ways

Being offended is great. We take for granted how truly awesome free speech can be as a tool for change. If people weren’t allowed to utter bigoted, racist, or downright moronic ideas, where would we get our motivation to make the world we live in a better place?

Martin Luther King got tired of hearing how his skin color determined his place in society. The Stonewall riots happened in part because gays were tired of being stigmatized as anything other than a normal part of society. Every time the Phelps family protests, people unite against their messages of hate. So lets all be thankful the next time some one deeply offends you – great inspiration for change can sprout from that ability to exchange ideas freely.

Freedom of speech is such a beautiful, deadly double-edged sword. It affords both viewpoints on an issue, no matter how controversial, to express openly. No matter which side of the issue is in the majority, you can still scream at the top of your lungs “you’re wrong moron” and its thankfully all nice and legal. The same right that lets gays proudly identify self-worth in their homosexuality affords bigots the right to scream “faggot” in their face. Yeah it’s not polite, but the alternative of not being allowed to do either frightens me more than the hurt feelings gathered up over the years of being called names. Sticks and stones and all that jazz.

Dale McAlpine’s world view clashes with mine, but not enough to scare me into censorship. McAlpine firmly believes homosexuality is a sin. This notion is hardly original, nor is the phrasing “homosexuality is a sin”, a particularly offensive way to express that thinking. If you are offended and your panties have twirled into the proverbial bunch, go to Godhatesfags.com and realize McAlpine’s choice in uttering his declaration of his beliefs is a Care Bear in comparison to what free speech legally allows to be openly expressed. Sure his opinion is based on ridiculously dated antiquated notions, but if you’re entitled to your opinions, no matter how insane others think them, he should get the exact same freedom.

A gay police community support officer, Sam Adams, was told second hand about McAlpine’s point of view he expressed in public and arrested him under the Public Order Act of 1986 – a law in the UK that seems highly open to misuse as clearly seen in cases like this. McAlpine, believing he had equal rights with the rest of the whack jobs out there, never denied what he said nor wavered from his viewpoint when confronted by law enforcement. While detained, enough scientific information was collected on McAlpine that Winston Smith was overheard mumbling about longing for the good old days.

Now if this was the first time officer Adams had been told his life style was offensive to some people he must have been living under a rock someplace deep within the English country side. If he was a good cop, he’d have known similar cases have been dropped and in the grand scheme of things, he was hurting himself. You can’t be the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender liaison officer for the police in a society that doesn’t allow for free speech, nor can you be open about your sexual orientation, especially while serving the public.

U.S. Rep. Steve King brought an interesting opinion to the free speech dance floor recently. If you don’t want to be discriminated against for being gay, be more discreet about it. Sounds like solid logic in my book. If you don’t want your life to be dissected, don’t put it on display. Next time I start screaming at people that the crosses around their necks represent oppression, bigotry, sexism, racism, and all sorts of other such fun filled family activities Mr. King better back my actions or at least bother to attend my funeral.

Am I advocating for hate speech? For freedom to truly exist, yes, we have to tolerate those of the more limited thinking mindset and their right to hate. They can organize and throw rallies promoting the downfall of every minority group they like so the rest of us can have the freedom to throw parades celebrating those very same groups. Attendance numbers clearly indicate who the majority sides with more often, or possibly who cooks better hamburgers and hot dogs.

While witnessing two wrestlers planning their ring action, the power of free speech to create change became obvious. Speaking freely, concessions were made between them so ultimately the best match possible could be created. Hate speech is the concession to allowing society to find better answers than name calling as a resolution to our differences or problems. So don’t just be offended, be motivated to make a difference. Who knows what your words may accomplish.

John Sklba is a graphic designer who lives in Plantation. John has spent time in Detroit, Saginaw and Atlanta. He can be reached at TroyM@jumponmarkslist.com