# Why would gays want to "propagate their lifestyle"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 27, 2002, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-gays-want-to-propagate-their-lifestyle/100317 "2002-03-27T03:46:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-gays-want-to-propagate-their-lifestyle/100317/41 "2002-03-29T01:44:06Z")
**gobear** , um, _Ikea_ represents good taste and sophistication? šŸ™‚ The major explanations of how come the RR is so hung up on the ā€˜spreadā€™ of gays have been covered. I also suspect that when you come from a background where what you ARE supposed to do IS proselytize your way of life, you would come to expect everyone else to be up to the same. This parallels the way the RR seems to feel that any description of something in fiction or nonfiction HAS to be in advocacy for or against (e.g. ā€œHarry Potter books preach paganismā€) . ---
**Author:** ![ignatzmouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b2d939/32.png) [@ignatzmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ignatzmouse)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-gays-want-to-propagate-their-lifestyle/100317/42 "2002-03-29T04:58:17Z")
I can actually see how members of the religious right might think that gays and lesbians are attempting to ā€œconvertā€ people. Among the major reasons to encouraging people to become more comfortable with homosexuality is to help gays, especially gay teens, have an easier time figuring out their sexuality. Some of these teens, of course, will be gay. If you believe that homosexuality is a choice and a sin, this would naturally be perceived as ā€œconversion,ā€ especially as JRDelerious says, within an organization dedicated to conversion. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-gays-want-to-propagate-their-lifestyle/100317/43 "2002-03-29T05:02:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by gobear \* > [BI can see why the fundies would feel threatened, too. Once converted, the formerly-straight guy abandons polyester blends for natural fibers, K-Mart for Ikea, and trades in Hootie for Madonna. Good taste and sophistication to a fundie are like garlic to a vampire. \*\* Iā€™ll give you Natural Fibers, but neither Ikea nor Madonna are good taste OR sophistication. Well Madonna might be good taste, but DEFINITELY not sophistication. Erek ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-gays-want-to-propagate-their-lifestyle/100317/44 "2002-03-29T05:10:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jayjay \* > \*\* > > Hehā€¦tell me about it. Not to hijack any further than we already have, but I did think it was amusing that they went to great, GREAT pains to **firmly** establish Samā€™s heterosexuality at the beginning of the movie and then completely obliterated that establishment by Astinā€™s performance and Jacksonā€™s direction. > > If Samwise didnā€™t have a little hobbit hard-on for Master Frodo, Iā€™ll marry the next woman who passes by and father 10 children. > > jayjay \*\* Exactly as it was in the books. Ask Maeglin to explain to you medieval master servant relationships to you sometimes. He explained it to me, but I still think thereā€™s something there. Erek ---
**Author:** ![king\_of\_spain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7cd45c/32.png) [@king\_of\_spain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/king_of_spain)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-gays-want-to-propagate-their-lifestyle/100317/45 "2002-03-29T05:43:24Z")
Okay, trying to look at this from the psycho-fundie point of view (eww, my brain feels dirty)ā€¦ Most of these people think that homosexuality means (1) being attracted to ANYTHING with a penis/vagina and (2) not caring about anything except having as much filthy, mindless sex as possible. Therefore, itā€™s clear that they want to convert every straight person in order to be able to sleep with them. Duh. (What confuses me is exactly how they think itā€™s possible to ā€˜recruitā€™ a thoroughly 100% straight person into homosexuality, but thatā€™s another story.) ---
**Author:** ![meyer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ccd318/32.png) [@meyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/meyer)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-gays-want-to-propagate-their-lifestyle/100317/46 "2002-03-29T10:35:05Z")
Having been accused of falling for the ā€œGay Agendaā€ and of allowing myself to be ā€œrecruitedā€, I have two things to say: 1. I have no idea why people say that, seeing as Iā€™m both a heterosexual and an athiest. I guess itā€™s just because I grew up in sort of a Bible-thumping town. 2. I have always assumed that your basic nutty fundy type sees just _accepting_ other peoples gay lifestyle and actually _leading_ a gay lifestyle as being pretty much the same thing. I mean, either way you are going to hell in their books, so they lump all the homosexuals and the people who are just down with homosexuality together. Under this assumtion, I gather that ā€œrecruitingā€ is not necessarily about turning heterosexual people into homosexual people, its about turning otherwise god-fearing, gay-hating youngsters into adults who are tolerant of those around them. If this is their idea of recruitment, then I can see why they are afraid of it - tolerance is obviously the enemy of the nutty fundy bunch, and in my experience exposure to diversity (in terms of sexuality, race, religion, or whatever), especially during the impressionable teenage years, has a way of breaking down a narrow world view, thus making the youth see the fundies for the wackos they truly are. ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-gays-want-to-propagate-their-lifestyle/100317/47 "2002-03-29T14:59:33Z")
> [@](#): > > Iā€™ll give you Natural Fibers, but neither Ikea nor Madonna are good taste OR sophistication. Well, I could have substituted Bombay for Ikea, but I canā€™t afford their prices. Love their furniture. though. Iā€™ll trade you Madonna for Verdi. Fundies donā€™t like opera, either, Iā€™ll wager. **Emarkp** , people arenā€™t treating the other side with respect because they deserve none. Gays donā€™t recruit, we donā€™t ā€œdecide,ā€ we donā€™t suddenly become gay. Sexual orientation is innate, unchosen. The urgings of the heart are not subject to the will. The fundie position is based on blind hatred and prejudice, and the proper response to bigotry is derisive laughter and contempt. ---
**Author:** ![Newton\_meter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/57b2e6/32.png) [@Newton\_meter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Newton_meter)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-gays-want-to-propagate-their-lifestyle/100317/48 "2002-03-29T15:27:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jayjay \* > **The other side, on the other hand, has their worldview warped by the idea that sexual orientation is some sort of willy-nilly whimsical choice that we gays make every morning. ā€œShall I be gay or straight today? Oh, I had so much wicked fun fucking men yesterday I think Iā€™ll stay gay!ā€ is as much behind their fear of ā€œrecruitmentā€ as it is of their sick fantasy of ā€œrecovery ministriesā€.** I donā€™t think this point has gotten the credit it deserved, **jayjay** , because you made it sound like a joke. Based on evidence of the homophobes Iā€™ve had the displeasure to have known, I think many of them have a quite tenuous grasp on their own heterosexuality. Theyā€™re often ā€œtemptedā€ by others of the same gender, leading them to believe that they (and others) **do** make a conscious decision every morning to remain heterosexual. And, as others have suggested, I donā€™t think itā€™s a far way to go from seeing the world as entirely black and white, to us vs. them, to winning and losing. You gotta fight the gays, 'cause they must be fighting you. kg mĀ²/sĀ² ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Lao](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/2bfe46/32.png) [@Dr.Lao](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Lao)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-gays-want-to-propagate-their-lifestyle/100317/49 "2002-03-29T16:51:17Z")
I was going to respond without reading, but I decided against it and found that most of what I was going to say has already been said, mostly by **JRDelirious**. Since the religious right knows that they themselves are trying to spread their lifestyle, they can only assume everyone else is trying to as well. And, as **Journeyman** said, this all fits in well with their view of the world as a horrible, horrible place (excepting themselves, of course). The RRā€™s cynicism about the world is overwhelming at times, it is a wonder how they can claim to have the same philosophy of Mr. turn-the-other-cheek Himself. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-gays-want-to-propagate-their-lifestyle/100317.md?page=2)