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March 20th, 2013
04:03 PM ET
Rainbow house gets revenge on neighbors(CNN)–A house is painted in rainbow colors to counteract Westboro Baptist Church neighbors. CNN's Jeanne Moos reports.
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I think the Westboro Baptist Church makes some valid points.
"Perhaps ho-mo$exual thoughts and feelings are simply a lack of control over carnal instincts as shown in your studies"
No being gay is totally natural. All major medical professional organizations concur that sexual orientation is not a choice and cannot be changed, from gay to straight or otherwise. The American, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, and European Psychological, Psychiatric, and Medical Associations all agree with this, as does the World Health Organization and the medical organizations of Japan, China, and most recently, Thailand. Furthermore, attempts to change one's sexual orientation can be psychologically damaging, and cause great inner turmoil and depression, especially for Christian gays and lesbians.
The scientific evidence of the innateness of homosexuality, bisexuality, and transgenderism is overwhelming, and more peer-reviewed studies which bolster this fact are being added all the time. Science has long regarded sexual orientation – and that's all sexual orientations, including heterosexuality – as a phenotype. Simply put, a phenotype is an observable set of properties that varies among individuals and is deeply rooted in biology. For the scientific community, the role of genetics in sexuality is about as "disputable" as the role of evolution in biology.
On the second point, that there is no conclusion that there is a "gay gene," they are right. No so-called gay gene has been found, and it's highly unlikely that one ever will. This is where conservative Christians and Muslims quickly say "See, I told you so! There's no gay gene, so being gay is a choice!"
Many of these reparative "therapists" are basing this concept on a random Bible verse or two. When you hold those up against the mountain of scientific research that has been conducted, peer-reviewed, and then peer-reviewed again, it absolutely holds no water. A person's sexuality – whether heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual – is a very deep biological piece of who that person is as an individual.
The fact that a so-called "gay gene" has not been discovered does not mean that homosexuality is not genetic in its causation. This is understandably something that can seem a bit strange to those who have not been educated in fields of science and advanced biology, and it is also why people who are not scientists ought not try to explain the processes in simple black-and-white terms. There is no gay gene, but there is also no "height gene" or "skin tone gene" or "left-handed gene." These, like sexuality, have a heritable aspect, but no one dominant gene is responsible for them.
Many genes, working in sync, contribute to the phenotype and therefore do have a role in sexual orientation. In many animal model systems, for example, the precise genes involved in sexual partner selection have been identified, and their neuro-biochemical pathways have been worked out in great detail. A great number of these mechanisms have been preserved evolutionarily in humans, just as they are for every other behavioral trait we know (including heterosexuality).
There are many biologic traits which are not specifically genetic but are biologic nonetheless. These traits are rooted in hormonal influences, contributed especially during the early stages of fetal development. This too is indisputable and based on extensive peer-reviewed research the world over. Such prenatal hormonal influences are not genetic per se, but are inborn, natural, and biologic nevertheless.
fantastic post, Erik!
my fiance and i are straight against hate. we support our g.ay brothers and sisters! marriage equality is on the horizon.
Free will is a myth... we are all slaves to our desires.
Does anybody ever look at themselves and think....I could be wrong. Everybody has an opinion, a lot of FACTS, are indeed manufactured to back one's cause. Believe what you want to believe. If you choose the wrong path, you're the one who's gonna suffer the most. Sure your Family will suffer, but to a lesser degree. It is my personal belief that there IS a God, Science is man's best guess. And you're not going to change my view on this, even if you rip my eyes out. I don't intend to change your view either, just be yourself and quit worrying about what others do in their personal lives. God alone holds the judgement not any one person or group of people.
RE-REPOST I can do this all day
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This is perfect. The Westboro lunatics came back with some dumb comment about being pleased to have the house of sodomites nearby to strengthen the resolve of their followers. Except the guy who bought and painted the house isn't gay.
I just hope the house gets rented to a group of the biggest baddest biker bears to intimidate the crap out of those fundiots.
Somebody has a major bug up their ass. My vote goes to captain america as a likely culprit who has been suspiciously absent during this entire debacle. Deleting posts is not gonna shut us up.
Rainbow houses and WBC. Seems like Americans have all the extremists they need. Why Al .... want to join the fray is a wonder.
That said we all have to learn to be nice to each other. And the gays don't have to dispplay everything. We know you are doing it already. lol
It looks like the clip still shows Megan Phelps-Roper who just got out with her sister – I hope one day she can live a normal life.
I do, too. Kudos to them for escaping that insanity and hatred.
..there is peace and harmony. Reclaim the rainbow and be gay and merry!
Wow this is really getting pathetic. So many posts deleted from moronic tools hitting report abuse on anyone they don't agree with.
hahaha! awesome! just awesome!
this evil nation tire every thing humanly possible to silence the WBC and failed. Now you claim a victory over a paing job. Pathetic. ALL you do is keep the core message of the WBC before the eyes of the whole world. This little house spread the message of WBC around the world more than a a thousand pickets would do.
Nah. It was painted to drive the WBC batshit crazy. It's a passive-agressive statement, that's all. Relax.
Tony, contrary to your delusional claim, the news media give your church much more attention than its 40 members deserve. The world cheers the paint job as a victory over your pathetic, immoral religion. Eat it.
Fort Rainbow – Even as far as military sandbars go .. it still does not look like it will withstand the next Sunami of Mother God.
Uh oh, this must be another flunkie from the Evangelical Fortune Cookie Co..
Not at all .. Simply a child who has witnessed his what his mother can do.
End of Story
How many tsumamis heppen in Topeka?
akira: not many, but when they do, they are very surpising
Lol@sam stone. Hope they didn't use watercolors on that house. Although a tie-dyed effect would be fetching.
"Simply a child who has witnessed his what his mother can do"
I've seen what she can do too.
It's impressive.
Ho.mophobia = ho.mose.xual
Researchers at the University of Georgia did a study measuring se/xual arousal to gay po.rn using a device that measures penile growth called a "plethysmograph".
When showing a gay scene to self-professed ho/mophobes, 80% of them had an increase in pe/nis size as compared to 34% of non-ho/mophobes.
The entire group's reaction was identical when it came to straight sm/ut.
When the participants were asked if they felt turned on by the gay scenes, the ho/mophobes were the only ones to underestimate their effect on them.
Perhaps ho-mo$exual thoughts and feelings are simply a lack of control over carnal instincts as shown in your studies. Over many generations (perhaps thousands) thoughts and acts that led to death or disapproval set off a silent alarm and what you see in your test results are remnants from an alarm that allowed your genes to make it this far.
Most people believe non typical $ex is taboo which can raise a flag pole on its own and distort the data.
No, fred, sorry; I think the evidence is pretty clear; those who are rabidly anti-gay got woodies more often than those who don't care about gays. Pretty telling.
Akira
There is no way to tell what caused the rise any more than why some people can't take their eyes of any taboo.
Apparently fred has difficulty with raising even his small flagpole.
@fred
It's called projection. It's common, and pretty well understood.
Your response is rambling, non-sensical, and just plain conjecture based in nothing.
@Fred
If gen.itals show distinct signs of se.xual aro.usal when the subject is exposed to a given stim.ulus, it can be reasonably ascertained that the subject finds the stimulus se.xually arousing.
Daniel Tosh did this for his show once; although not scientific in the least, it showed that all of his staff, including Daniel, that viewed the gay porn were not stimulated at all.
Their facial reactions were another story; but then, they aren't gay, either.
With any luck, we have begun to see the end of this hate group masquerading as a church. Their numbers dwindle, even the higher up members have begun to defect,
One day they will be nothing but an ugly foot note on the history of equality.
When one of them sees a rainbow, a gay person in heaven gets their wings.
it's not surprising that most fundamentalist xians agree with the westboro baptist folks.
these people are the true force of darkness in our world.
of course....they find comfort in their view of god because it justifies their hatred.
For any Church to have a banner on the side that reads "God hates America" is to be avoided. This is the same reason so many folks don't go to Church today – hypocracy. If you are a true Christian you may hate the sin but love the sinner – just as Jesus did. DT 1:17 "Do not be afraid of any man, for judgment belongs to God."
Amen sister. As far as the rainbow house goes, it's America and anyone should be able to paint their house any color they want.
SPA Knight: I agree, but in some communities there are restictions on how you can paint your house
When the American south was forced to rescind Jim Crow laws and accept racial integration, it was Baptists who most strongly opposed equality.
Wallie Criswell, an extremely popular and influential Southern Baptist Minister famously said "Let them integrate! Let them sit up there in their dirty shirts and make all their fine speeches. But they are all a bunch of infidels, dying from the neck up."
Scarcely half a century later, the zeitgeist has shifted so radically that such open racism is considered abhorrent to the very same Christian sect that spouted scripture to justify insti.tutionalized bigotry.
The prevailing Baptist condemnation of ho.mose.xuality will soon be viewed with the same sense of shame that the memory of segregation elicits.
Americans really like to upset each other. You would think that after all of the good things this guy has done in Africa he would have something better to do than go to Topeka, KS and irritate a local idiot, but I guess not. Now instead of the neighborhood having one obnoxious @sshole group, it has two. Maybe the Klan will move into the next house, then black militants, then the street name could be changed to Obnoxious irritating @sshole Place.
how does this make him an obnoxioius @sshole?
So, John, you think the Westboro Baptists are right? Do you agree with their tenets? Do you think what they do is a good thing?
I see your point John.
Just because one group is in wrong, it does not justify the wrong actions of another.
That being said, i think this is a complicated case and I'm on the side of the obnoxious rainbow painters.
Unless there's a neighborhood covenant that requires homeowners to paint their houses according to some standard, why do you care, John? At least the homeowner doesn't march around the church with signs that say god hates America.
Uh, oh. The ugliness is starting here, too.
Akira says:
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March 20, 2013 at 5:35 pm
Holy cow, sam. That’s going WAY back!
Reply
sam stone says:
March 20, 2013 at 6:34 pm
it is, but it is as close as a Family Guy episode
They seem not to like facts Akira peace
The RCC should come clean about the fake origin story might help ? The talking snake thing .
Skulls of Early Humans Carry Telltale Signs of Inbreeding
Mar. 18, 2013 — Buried for 100,000 years at Xujiayao in the Nihewan Basin of northern China, the recovered skull pieces of an early human exhibit a now-rare congenital deformation that indicates inbreeding might well have been common among our ancestors, new research from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Washington University in St. Louis suggests
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130318180411.htm
March 21, 2013 at 6:10 am | Report abuse | Reply
Science
Science
Mind mapping NO GOD(S) REQUIRED!
Gone but Not Forgotten: Yearning for Lost Loved Ones Linked to Altered Thinking About the Future
Mar. 18, 2013 — People suffering from complicated grief may have difficulty recalling specific events from their past or imagining specific events in the future, but not when those events involve the partner they lost, according to a new study published in Clinical Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130318151631.htm
Maybe the bible needs to be updated
March 21, 2013 at 6:37 am | Report abuse |
Akliera says:
March 20, 2013 at 6:33 pm
Whhaaat? Me lie? Noooooo…. never. (you do live in Colorado, I can read your ip address)
No. I don't lie. Sorry. And I never claimed to "read" IP addresses.
My. Touched a nerve, did I? What are you afraid of, troll?
god gives not a damn for mans fallies. He made u and he makes no mistakes so the church of fales thoughts kiss me bumm an to let u on a little news he really does not care .... it is when humans try to shape god in to humans beliefs that s*&^ happens he has already left and built new things u are forgotten yet not relieved of self hatred ..... grow up and one day when u are dead and buried along with your future decendants god may come back and resurect u to kill you slowly so that u may see your sins F&^% religion made and dreamed up by weck men...
Wha?
Fallies?
the church of fales thoughts kiss me bumm?
god may come back and resurect u to kill you slowly so that u may see your sins F&^% religion made and dreamed up by weck men?
OMG I see there's a Mississippi somewhere in the Klingon empire too.
Wenwood's post makes perfect sense to us!
Isn't a weck man a German pastry?
wenwood, you are cordially invited to suck my left teat.
ER, this made me giggle out loud! Thanks.
"he makes no mistakes"
Heh.
"...it is when humans try to shape god in to humans beliefs that s*&^ happens..."
like when man created god, wenwood?
the rest of your post is incoherent drivel. seek psychiatric help
lie-ah
Enjoying yourself, troll?
Well I still don't see a successful reply to fred's post, though where he uses that in the body of the post.
I am jealous that your posts hit a nerve so badly that you got a very obsessive troll-stalker, Akira. Well done!
(Bows) thank you. Thank you very much.
Now fvck off.
God loves all of us sinners , equally. He calls us all to repentance, he wants us to be fruitful.
what authority do you have to speak for god?