Quote Originally Posted by gagged_Louise View Post
No, my argument is not just about kids being exposed to bullying for their parents being gay, but about the fact that this would add on, melt together with the fact that they are definitely outside, out-of-the-ordinary, just by virtue of what they look like (and they can't change neither of those factors) One plus one becomes bigger than two. You may say "Who cares?" but the child can't say that.

Maybe you haven't seen bullying of that kind but I have, many of us have. I really don't think one can ask school kids - kids in general - to make a reasoned moral stand of their own in a question of this kind, where adult society is still very divided and full of people who would prefer that all gay and lesbians be "unprogrammed" or locked up in a monastery and "forced to eat some cock". Kids pick up on what's around them, on the talk of the town, and they are far from consistent. We can't use kids as a battering ram to break down adult prejudice (I also think it's, by and large, unfair to bring along kids as props in highly charged peace manifestations).

Is it "worse to be in an adopting family and getting bullied than living in a war-torn country in Africa"? First off, I think we shouldn't flatly put down the countries these children come from. Many of them want to keep ties with thier biological origin, even their bio mother, as they fgrow up. And the child doesn't really compare her "old life as it would have been" with what they get being adopted - they don't experience it that way nor should they. One can't say that one bad condition (being bullied all through many school years and getting badly scarred) is justified or somehow okay by invoking "well if you'd stayed at home you 'd probably have had your foot blown off by a landmine,seen your mother and sister get raped and you'd have to starve". Yes, those kinds of things happen in the cruel reality of Congo or Colombia, but that doesn't mean everything that might happen to the same children here in a rich Western country is nice and acceptable to them.
I'd say your line of reasoning is teetering on the edge of absurd. Your assumption that kids with homosexual parents will get or will very likely get picked on is based on what exactly? The fact that it doesn't seem to happen any more to kids with homosexual parents than other kids doesn't seem to phase you? Dan Savage, a famous columnist and gay parent has talked a lot about in in his column.

Homosexuals tend congregate in areas which are more homosexually friendly. I'd say that the chances of a gay couple that want to adopt living in one of these gay friendly enclaves is pretty much close to 100%. You live in one. Could you seriously imagine a kid in Stockholm being picked on specifically because his or her parents are gay?

You're basically saying that if we eliminate any surface differences between kids then bullying will stop or be minimized. Beside it being reprehensible on moral grounds I think it is wrong.

When I was little I went to an international school. We picked on a Malaysian muslim girl. Our school had a wide variety of kikes, wops, niggers and coons to put it humorously. Nobody was in a position where they where in any way stranger than anybody else, no matter religion, skin colour or ethnicity. My best friend for years was straight out the Ugandan jungle. The reason we picked on her wasn't because she was dark skinned, muslim or any of the other ethic minority features she had. It was simply because she was socially inept. She didn't have the social skills to become popular. She still doesn't. I met her at a class get together a while back. She'd fixed everything we picked on her for, her weight among other things, and her nose. But those where just things we said to hurt her, it wasn't the real reason for her torment. I'm pretty sure we didn't even realise what they it at the time. My point being is that I don't think the stated reason for bullying is ever the real reason.

I'm not saying we had any justification to be as cruel as we where, just what it was based on. And I'm not saying that all people who get bullied get bullied for the same reason this girl was. This was a long rant about that kids are really cruel and there's not much you can do about that. I don't think there's any way to eliminate bullies.

Considering that all young primates pick on who ever is perceived as the weak I think chances are pretty good that bullying is an inbuilt feature in the human race. It may be just another one of our inherited monkey instincts. I'm sure nobody past their teens truly believe children are born with some kind of innocence. Evil little egotistical blighters the lot of 'em But cute, I'll give them that.

edit: And this is also another subject all together. It's in no way related to the gay marriage issue.