A Usenet persona calling itself Michael Daly wrote:


On 4-Mar-2005, Scott Weiser wrote:

Then again, one of the justifications put forward for banning homosexual
sodomy is that such acts are dangerous to the public health. The AIDS
epidemic among homosexuals lent credence to this justification in the eyes
of those who make the laws.

The AIDS epidemic is overwhelmingly among heterosexuals. Any reasonable
source for AIDS statistics will point that out.

It is now. It wasn't in the beginning.

Blaming homosexuals
for AIDS is nothing but the bias of the ignorant.

I wasn't blaming anybody for anything, I was merely stating some facts.


Anti-sodomy laws are based
in the same legal theory as laws which proscribe sexual activity between
adults and children.

The big difference is consent - adults can consent to behavior,
children are assumed to not be able to. Any law that assumes
that adults are not able to consent removes responsibility from
adults and puts it in the hands of the law. Hardly a description
of a free country.

True, but the legal basis is the same. Society is empowered to decide what
behaviors are acceptable and what behaviors are not. In Canada, it's legal
for an adult to have sex with a 14 year old. In the US, it's illegal almost
everywhere...unless the adult is married to the child, which is still legal
in some states.

The point is that a society is not compelled to sanction every possible
behavior by an individual.

If you don't like a society that proscribes homosexual conduct, you are, of
course, free to seek out a society which embraces such conduct. Sweden comes
to mind...


(such as pedophilia or rape) then you implicitly agree that
the state has the power to decide WHICH sexual behavior it wishes to
control.

Pedophilia or rape do not involve consent. Behavior that does should not
be controled by the state.

So, if persons A and B engage in consensual sex, and A has a deadly STD and
knowingly and deliberately does not tell B about it and infects B, who dies,
the state should not proscribe even consensual unprotected sex by persons
who are known to have deadly STD's?

Things are rarely as simplistic as you would like them to be.

--
Regards,
Scott Weiser

"I love the Internet, I no longer have to depend on
friends, family and co-workers, I can annoy people WORLDWIDE!" TM

© 2005 Scott Weiser