"Tolerating immorality" and confusing the children

Rob Tisinai ruminates at Box Turtle Bulletin about how children "get it". Some people have two moms,and some have a mom and a dad, and some have two dads. THat's just how the world works. Kids only have a problem with that if their parents do.

Then he tells us of a blog by a fundamentalist Catholic woman who is offended that same sex couple exist. (I am not linking to the woman's blog directly because (a) I don't drive traffic to anti-gay sites and (b) I don't think people should descend to her level and post hateful messages at her blog--which she's gleefully happy to publish and highlight.) Seems the fundy woman took her kids to the public pool and was shocked, SHOCKED that there are homos there:

At the pool this summer there were homosexual couples with children and, while I was polite as my own young daughters doted on the baby with two “mommies”, I also held my breath in anticipation of awkward questions – questions I’m not ready to answer....

When there were two men relaxing at the side of the pool unnaturally close to each other, effeminately rubbing elbows and exchanging doe-eyes, I was again anxiously watching my children hoping they wouldn’t ask questions.

Rubbing elbows is effeminate? who knew? The way she talks you'd think the two were lip-locked. She goes on,

I can’t even go to normal places without having to sit silently and tolerate immorality. We all know what would happen if I asked two men or two women to stop displaying, right in front of me and my children, that they live in sodomy…

Okay, so how are they "displaying"?

• There were a couple of women with a baby. 
•  Two men let their elbows touch while relaxing.

Whoa, call out the porn police. Not.

The issue isn't their "displaying". I mean, look at any pair of hormonally driven straight teens, who are slobbering over each other at the pool. Does she have an issue about that? There's no claim here that the gay couples were grinding their pelvises together or shoving their tonguesdown each others' throats, like more than a few straight teens. No, the problem isn't any overt sexual display.

It's the very fact of their existence. This fundy woman does not want to acknowledge that she shares the world with gay people. She's no different than someone who doesn't want Jews buying houses in their neighborhood, or doesn't want her kids to play with black children. She certainly has the freedom not to attend a public venue, if she doesn't like the people there. But she has no right to erase us or render us invisible.  So much of this fight isn't about marriage.  It's about our right to exist openly.

 And meanwhile, feel for her kids--growing up with a whacko fundy mom.  (Sometimes I think the fundy Catholics are the whackiest fundies of all.)