I think you probably a very nice guy. You are all over the map here though.
I won't get into a long argument or rant..I hope so here goes.
Please DO NOT compare gay rights to the issue of racial prejudice and those "civil rights" Sorry but there is absolutely no comparison. Nobody has to know that a gay person is gay if they don't want anyone to know. Everyone knows a black person when they see one. That is tough to avoid. BTW most people don't care how others in general have sex or with whom.
I don't know who says that most Islamist s want us "Infidels" dead because they are living in the past and clinging to
Ancient ideas. Me, you and those that want us dead are living in the here and now. Sorry but don't make the comparison of modern day Christians to modern day Muslims. I am not going to get into the religious stuff.
Prior to the Revolutionary War freed black men or just free black men were most often treated just like that...men! You have to do some deep research to know what I am talking about. Seems things get recycled or just turned around.
I am going to cut this short with many things unsaid except that ...If "Individual Rights" were protected as in the Constitution instead of "Group Rights" that eventually get used to push an agenda other then the rights of the individual this would be a much better place to live! Like the lady wrote... If you don't support "Individual Rights" you can't claim to support "Minority Rights" because the "individual" is the smallest minority on earth!
I would much prefer the fight to preserve individual rights, but certain rights are being legislated away from certain groups all the time. In Michigan, for instance, which is supposed to be heavily democrat, the right of same sex partners to have even just a civil union was legislated away several years ago.
Some other states are doing the same thing. True, some are doing the opposite, but in my opinion, I don't think the government should be inserting its self into this. But that's a different debate for a different forum.
As for what's visible and what isn't, believe me, there are some in the LGBT community that are HIGHLY visible when they walk down the street, some only when they start talking, and others, not at all. And regardless of color, race, sex or sexual orientation, I always thought we ALL should be afforded the same rights. However, there are those who disagree.
As for Christians and Muslims, why shouldn't I compare them? SOME on both sides are very reasonable people. And some on both sides are equally NOT very reasonable. Some take a more modern view of things, and others prefer ancient dogma that was written thousands of years ago, under very different circumstances. If we can follow one ancient precept, and say that homosexuality is wrong, why not stick with all of them, deny women the right to vote, and all the other stuff that's in there, obviously written by men with a point of view that women are not 2nd class citizens, because they shouldn't be considered citizens at all.
I'm not saying that everything in the Bible or Koran is wrong. But for certain, there are some things in there that are not right either. And I'll let it go at that for now, since that is a debate for another forum as well.
I don't want minority rights, I don't think ANYONE should get minority rights. I'm against affirmative action. It's compensation that shouldn't be necessary. I want equal rights for everyone, as an individual. I want less government, less taxes, and more money in my paycheck.
I don't want the government telling me what I can or can't do, as long as what I'm doing doesn't hurt anyone else. The Universal Life Church has a motto, that I find very appropriate 99.5% of the time, "Do that which is right." I think, if we could all just live by that motto, it could fix most of our problems. The thing is, not everyone will. There's the criminal who's motto is, what's mine is mine, and what's yours will be mine, given a chance. And then some politicians think they know what's better for me, than I do. Maybe they do, but that doesn't give them the right to make my decisions for me.
Professional politicians are our worst enemies. We should have made the jobs with either term limits, or little to no compensation, that would have kept a lot of people out of that line of work. The problem is, our form of government is the worst in the world......except for all the others. And since there's no real alternative, I guess we're stuck with it. I just hope it gets better before too long, other wise, who knows where it's headed.