[quote author=FoxForceFive link=topic=21236.msg506313#msg506313 date=1204568420]
Now I think I'm fairly liberal, but I find this completely wrong. Like it or not, heterosexuality IS the norm, & is what's socially acceptable, I think such blatant portrayal of homosexuality is incredibly damaging to children.
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You aren't fairly liberal if you believe that. That is conservativism in the most Mannheimian sense of the word.
What you have basically said is, things are what they are, and heterosexuality within this status quo is not normative, hence it should be marginalized and erased ESPECIALLY for those who have yet to come to make value judgments about it. This of course perpetuates how things are.
It isn't a matter of "like it or not", that attitude by definition means you like the status quo as you seek to preserve it. That attitude says that it is in our interest to maintain gays as a marginalized group.
What exactly is the damage to a kid seeing homosexual pda instead of heterosexual normative pda? Either you think by that that they could become marginalized, become gay, and incur the social penalty that "like it or not" exists by witnessing the behavior, or you think that their not reinforcing normative social convention somehow otherwise damages the social fabric.
Why would it be damaging for kids to see something that they wouldn't know is wrong, and isn't essentially damaging or wrong, but for the social taboo that is reinforced by encouraging them to come to the same normative judgments and maintain the status quo? This circular logic is the very definition of social conservatism as a sociological logic.
For my part, there is nothing wrong with two men kissing. I notice it only as startling because I grew up in a bigoted society. As I have very good friends who are gay and have been exposed to gay/lesbian public affection more frequently in certain environments it has much less effect.
I would also argue quite the opposite regarding damage to children. The more promiscuous and garish elements of gay culture which do not promote stable families, are dangerous with respect to disease, and do not afford any meaningful human interaction will be weakened when the norms of culture incorporate and condone and encourage analagous situations to the heterosexual norm. When we have no problem seeing a gay couple publicly express a societally condoned coupling, you'll see less of the seedy aspects of gay culture that exist precisely because it has been marginalized.
