"Open your eyes, people," Anderson recently wrote to the local newspaper. "What if a 15-year-old is seduced into homosexual behavior and then contracts AIDS?"At first, I got very, very angry.
Then I started thinking of any number of really nasty things to call her.
Next, I thought of sarcastic rejoinders.
Then it occurred to me that Barb Anderson isn't ever -- not if she were to live to be a million -- going to listen to insults. Why should she? I wouldn't.
At one time I wouldn't have imagined switching places with her. I would have thought she didn't deserve that courtesy. I'm still not sure she does.
She is totally, abysmally wrong. A kid isn't going to be seduced into same-sex behavior unless he or she is already internally wired to enjoy it.
I don't doubt Anderson has had the opportunity to read information that flatly contradicts her beliefs. She nevertheless still believes she's right and people like me are wrong.
Two sides, each convinced to its core that the other is fundamentally wrong, neither willing to give an inch -- in Anderson's case, because of religious doctrine; in mine, because of actual experience with gays that transcends any strictures laid down in a religious text I will never believe is inerrant, or even a reasonable guide to morality. (People like Anderson convince me that you need to gloss over a lot of nastiness in the Bible before it can be regarded as a good guide to living.)
But Anderson and I live in the same country. Somehow, we have to arrive at a modus vivendi.
I can't imagine how that will happen.
And that's why I'm shaking my head.
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