People seem to be up in arms over the fact that a gay soldier's videotaped message was booed during the Republican debate on Thursday night.
Frankly, the booing -- which to my ears only sounded like one or two people -- didn't bug me as much as Rick Santorum's response to the soldier's question. That was what really got my attention.
In response to whether or not he, as president, would "circumvent" the soldier's rights as a gay person in the military, Santorum said, "any type of sexual activity has absolutely no place in the military."
The solider didn't ask about sexual activity. He asked about his rights as a human being and American citizen -- to live honestly.
I know Santorum's response shouldn't surprise me. His commentary about gay people has been incisive enough to create significant pushback against him.
Still, it irritates me to no end that I, and my gay brothers and sisters across this country are whittled down to being nothing more than ruled by our sexual urges by people like Santorum.
There is no other way to interpret what Santorum is saying. He jumped right to sexual activity, just as the more fervent conservatives on gay issues tend to do. His implication is that gay men and women are signing up to serve and protect our country in order to fulfill some sexual fantasy. It is beyond ludicrous. Who on earth would sign up to potentially be sent to fight and die in a war zone with that intention?
People like Santorum completely negate a homosexual's preference for human connection, friendship, companionship, non-sexual intimacy and love and jump right to the sex acts. It's always about the sex. They're obsessed with the sex. They won't lay off the sex.
I may be a homosexual, but my sexual preference does not wholly define who I am any more than it does someone who is heterosexual.
I may not be in the military, but I am an honorable citizen, work a good job, give to charity, pay my taxes, belong to a spiritual community, volunteer to make the world a better place, and am the type to help little old ladies cross the street. Yet, because I choose to love, hold, hug, kiss or share any kind of intimacy with a man, I am a lower class citizen or heathen who must be stifled and punished. The one item of who I feel naturally drawn to love cancels out all the good, Godly, great things about me. It's ridiculous.
The most zealous of the political and religious conservatives will still find a way to twist and distort who gay people are, but I will keep finding ways to shout right back until the day I'm either not breathing or it's not necessary anymore.