As the originator of the website title, let me weigh in.
Originally, I came up with Stunning Sodomites of the SDMB as a throwaway joke in one of the recent gay rights threads (can’t remember which now). But I applaud Mockingbird for taking it into reality.
Now to go find a decent pic of myself and email the bearbird…
Holy cow! I appreciate the good wishes, but really, let’s hold off until one of us pops the question. 
(If you don’t wish to delay your good wishes, you may want to steer them towards scott & jeremy evil.)
I would be disappointed if the three of you weren’t represented.
I am doing my best to have a completely inclusive representation of the queers of the SDMB.
Okay… this site has nothing to do with the SCOTUS decision.
The point? jayjay had a good idea that a few said they’d like to see become a reality. I had a few hours and an idea and it gelled.
It is because we are a sub community of a community and many of us are on friendly terms and wanted pictures so we could know what we’re getting into with the impending orgies.
Wait. That’s not it.
It was so I’d know how to distinct each Doper as they came through the turnstile in my bedroom.
Nope. That really isn’t it either.
It’s just because a space that is just about us has some interest behind it, and I am up for hosting, designing, and maintaining it.
It’s a joke. You’re in the military. You know about military jokes like don’t ask, don’t tell.
I doubt my little website is going to jeopardize the ruling,.
Flaunting?
pfft
You’ve done more in public with your wife than I ever did with my ex-husband or any other man. Let he who is without flaunt cast the first aspersion.
The name?
Well… deal.
I have never went outside and whipped my dick out. Well, there was that time in my best friend’s backyard, and my ex-husband and I… cough Regardless, I never did it in public.
Scout’s Honor. Yes, I was a Boy Scout and then a Fire Rescue Explorer.
I’m not going to flame you.
I think you are way off base and would have been better off discussing this with your wife.
My innocuous website is no great dramatic political statement.
What is sad is that a website that I have created is now an issue, albeit a small one, that is causing consternation and offense to be taken where there is none to be seen.
Why you felt you had to post this, I don’t know.
Why you have such an issue with gay people is far beyond me and honestly, I really don’t care.
As Diane Ford said: “Sometimes the jokes are just for me.”
Well, sometimes the jokes are just for us.
It’s not? 
Well, not all of it, anyway. 
And those are the best ones, dahling…
You gotta love The Onion.
I know I did NOT sign that release for a picture of me in my buttless chaps.
But it’s for the benefit of humanity Mockingbird.
At least that’s what I think my workmate meant when he said on viewing that story “Oh the humanity”
Okay. Just be kind to the turnstile. I just had it installed, and it’s all nice and shiny.
I have never heard the term “sodomite” used to describe someone who was inhospitable to strangers – even if such usage would actually be correct in the Biblical sense.
[MrsAirman]I’m not trying to excuse Airman’s behavior, or put any kind of a spin on what he’s saying. He’s an adult, and as such is entirely responsible for what he posts.
We did talk about this last night after he posted, both directly and indirectly. I tried to put it in terms that he could understand (i.e.: It’s illegal to be Irish, and your rights as a citizen are restricted because being Irish is a crime, and you’re a criminal) I don’t know if it helped, but that’s a different issue entirely.
That said, Airman is Catholic. He does not practice his religion on a regular basis, but his Catholicism informed his worldview. He does not have a problem with sex or sexuality in the abstract. He is fine with the concept of homosexuality. He doesn’t care if you yourself happen to be gay, straight, bisexual, or yak-felching. On the other hand, he is not okay with it when he is confronted with actual demonstrations of homosexuality. It makes him feel oogy.
We’re working on this.[/MrsAirman]
Now that I’m done with that insight into my husband’s mind, I’m going to weigh in myself.
I think that words have a lot of power. Using the word “nigger” when you’re white will earn you a punch in the face, or at least some hurt looks. And rightfully so. It’s a derogatory word, and it has no place in civil society. Ditto for words like “kike”, “spic”, and other racial and ethnic sobriquets.
“Sodomy” falls into that category. I don’t think it matters which specific acts it describes. What it describes is sexual behavior that is considered heinous and outside the bounds of what is considered socially acceptable. I agree with the folks who think that it should go away.
Robin
Then I am glad my boyfriend has never been to more Dopefests; we might inadvertently hug or hold hands, thus making Airman feel “oogy”. I know that he can’t help the feelings that a religious worldview indoctrinated into him, but still, to find that he views me as “oogy” is extremely disheartening. I have always considered him one of my best friends on the board, and this thread makes me sad indeed.
I totally see and mostly agree with your point, but I also think that context must be taken into account. Sodomy in the mouths of preachers and politicians (and yes, that construction is intentional :D) is grossly offensive, but in the MPSIMS, Mockingbird was retaking the word, much as the word “queer” has been boomeranged into a word of pride instead of insult.
Just IMO.
Anyway, hugs to you, Airman, and Bombbay Doors. I will not let this thread get in the way of our friendship.
This is precisely the sentiment that is causing the problem here.
If a blacks start calling themselves “niggers”, or if Jews call themselves “kikes”, who the fuck are you to object?
I now have the lyrics to Pansy Division’s C.S.F. stuck in my head, thanks to this thread. “… sodomite, sex fiend …”
Great song, but definitely not work-appropriate.
What behavior would fall into this category? Here is my point - I had a roommate once that was constantly in the horizontal position on the sofa with her significant other. Always spooning. They even talked to one another and others with their lips together. I started to feel intrusive in my own living room. Showing affection, even a degree of intimacy is imo, ok. There is a point when it becomes too much and starts to make others feel “oogy”. I think when same sex people show affection, some would be more aware of the display. That is, if they have not been exposed to these displays. Some areas are pretty open. In Houston there would be few if any turned heads should a same sex couple walk hand in hand. If this happened in Plano, there could be a traffic jam. So my question is what demonstrations are we discussing?
I saw the thread title as a little tongue-in-cheek. The people that are the most likely to call people ‘Sodomites’ are using it as an insult, trying to bring up connotations of evil, hell-fire damnation inducing acts. So someone sees the title and then you go to the site and there are pictures of normal, decent, fun and witty people and it’s such a contrast to the word sodomy. It puts a face to the idea - when you hear someone call homosexuals sodomites, this is who they are talking about. It just puts a different spin than if it was just called ‘The gay people of the SDMB’, or whatever.
The site itself is about as non-offensive as you can get, but if people are really offended by the thread, all I can say is don’t join in. It is a celebration for those who wish to participate, understanding that not everyone will.
:throws confetti in the air:
**
To clarify my original post (I know it wasn’t the most well-written; I had one foot out the door to go to a doctor’s appointment), he doesn’t view people as oogy. He’s just not comfortable with any kind of overt sexual behavior, gay or straight, that’s all. He was indoctrinated with the notion that sex is somehow dirty and shameful. (We’re working on this, too. ;))
Robin
So, where does all of this leave us? I am seeing some hetero folk in this thread that are admittedly victims of their upbringing, and yet know that the views that they inherited are not correct. They are fighting them. Let me say this another way; they are not fighting the urge not to hang gay people from fence posts or the urge to drag them behind trucks, they seem to be looking at that place in their psyches that makes them feel oogy about homosexual behavior and attempting to confront it. This is a right an proper thing to do.
Is there a place for this? Can someone stand up and say “you know what? I was raised with some ideas about gay people that I now know are just flat out wrong, and I want to talk about the way that makes me feel”?
I had a wondrful time at the Jonathan Chance party (and tried to say so in the MPSIMS thread, but the hamsters were hungry).
A part of that enjoyment was a number of long conversations with gobear, iampunha, and fizzestothetop, and with AirmanDoors. In the last we mutually observed how we were moving from a parochial, naive, conservative stance into a more liberral, accepting one. Being older than the Airman, I’ve had a head start, but also a lot more accumulated detritus to get rid of.
What I have to say here could be misread as highly offensive, and I humbly ask, with whatever bona fides I’ve gained in our gay community over the years, that it be read as a friend offering advice, and not as someone sitting in judgment.
The problem isn’t the word “sodomy” or the Mockingbird website, which seems to be a way for the gay Dopers to get to know each other better, no different than a specialized subset of the People Pages or Teeming Millions. (BTW, Mockingbird, if you haven’t already – and I didn’t check – the disclaimer about not having any official connection to The Straight Dope or the Chicago Reader, Inc., would be a good move.)
The gay community in America today, as I see it, is in much the same place as the Black community was in 1968. Public awereness of the problems it faces has grown, and men and women of good will are on its side in combatting bigotry.
But there remains a discomfort, an unsureness of how to deal with the people who are different from what Middle America is used to.
That truly does need to be kept in mind. It should not mean any cessation in claiming equal status with everyone else, and I want to explicitly exclude any implication that might be read into this that it does. It may mean that good judgment suggests discretion in the amount of “in-your-face” activity that follows from recent victories in the Canadian Parliament and courts and the U.S. Supreme Court.
To continue the parallel with Blacks, most white Americans in 1968 supported, more or less, the goals of the NAACP, but found themselves fairly uncomfortable with the more radical groups whose stances and anger they could not grasp.
I personally confess to a slight sense of uckiness from imagining two heavyset, hairy 40-year-old men engaged in assboinking (though the idea of two teenage boys doing so doesn’t bother me, a psychological quirk I don’t want to explore!). But I am offended at the idea that their wishing to do so should have any bearing on their employment, their right to rent or own a home, etc., and if they choose to celebrate their love for each other by uniting in wedlock, I’ll be the first to say they ought to be able to. In short, my sense of uckiness is my problem, not theirs, and I recognize that fact.
But Joe and Mary Middle America don’t. That ucky picture is one they need to get beyond, to make way for the sense of fair play that will cause them to support equal rights for gay people.
So my advice is for gay men and women to focus on the idea that “you’re just like us” – that you want to date, have homes and families, work jobs, go to art museums, raise children and make a future for them – all that sort of thing with which they can identify.
There’s a time and place for the sort of confrontational attitude characterized by the Justin character speech that gobear quoted earlier in this thread. But remember that that was shock treatment – to bring a mother in denial about her son’s gayness into touch with the reality of who he was. It need not be the stock in trade of gay men and women, just because they now can.
I would like to see precisely the same limits on what is socially acceptable PDAs for gay people as for straights – holding hands walking down the street or in a restaurant, a quick casual kiss: the sex of the willing partner should not matter. Use blatancy about sex lives only when it’s necessary to make a point that needs to be made – that what gay people do in bed differs little from what straight people do, save for the obvious physiological distinctions, for example.
Learn from the past. The future has unlimited potential – but it’s all too easy a thing to stir up a backlash among people who, given sugar instead of vinegar, would be strong supporters of your goals. Never back down from claiming your rights – but use good judgment in how to accomplish the gaining of them. Tell His4Ever that there are no legal or moral reasons why you should shape your lives by her beliefs. But keep in mind the sensibilities of the majority that will support you , and extend them time and patience to come into an understanding of who you are and how you feel and what you face.
I needed it. And because I got it, I’ve become a strong supporter of your cause. Be firm but patient with the majority of Americans, point out the lies your opponents tell, and they’ll come around to understand and support you.
…just so I could guess at the motivations for a fabulous sodomite (Not Saddam-ite, right? Cuz, that would be bad.) website. [sub]Pretty slick, eh? It’s two freaking pages already![/sub]
Because personal conduct can no longer be penalized by certain states, people are making a point that they feel free to admit they are gay, ergo “soddomites.” Like having a glaucoma / chemotherapy party in California perhaps?
First, it’s not a big deal no matter the motivation. Second, if the reasoning is as I suggest it makes a valid point. In some states, it used to be illegal for gay people to have sex in their own homes.