Discrimination?

Last week was an interesting week for me on Facebook and here on the blog. Last Saturday when I stated my opposition to gay marriage, I got a comment, very nice and civil by the way, that disagreed with me. I like such comments. 

On Facebook however I pointed out that the incident where Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed was not about homosexuality, but violence. I was immediately accused of being homosexual. The word “fag” was used, but not in reference to me. The thread was eventually deleted as was only proper.

I decided to talk about these issues a little more. First we have this episode:

A restaurant in Knoxville, Tennessee refused to serve state Sen. Stacey Campfield, the man who sponsored the state’s “don’t say gay” bill, compared homosexuality to bestiality, and most recently told Michelangelo Signorile that it’s virtually impossible to spread HIV/AIDS through heterosexual sex. “I hope that Stacy Campfield now knows what if feels like to be unfairly discriminated against,” the Bistro at the Bijou wrote on its Facebook wall on Sunday. The restaurant has received an overwhelmingly positive response.

I found this amusing on several levels. It was not unfair for the restaurant to do this. It is their right, or at least it should be. Another thing I found amusing was that it is not a good business model for 1 to 2 % of the population to discriminate against 98% of the population. The potential customers who do not show up are not going to say anything. 

It is also amusing to me that I wish to give the right to refuse service to them, but they are often unwilling to do the same for others. Even more amusing is the fact that the person they “discriminated” against does not discriminate and rents his rental property to homosexuals. 

Maybe I am easy to amuse. 

As for it being nearly impossible to get AIDS through heterosexual relations, this is clearly wrong. 

Transmission route                        Male                               Female

Male-to-male sexual contact          24,132                                -

Injection drug use                        2,652                                1,520

Male-to-male sexual contact

and injection drug use                    1,157                                    -

Heterosexual contact                     4,551                                8,706

Other                                            47                                     29

Total*                                           32,538                            10,255

* Because totals are calculated independently of the subpopulations, the values in each column may not sum exactly to the figure in the ‘Total’ row

 I took this chart from here. 

However these statistics must be tempered with the fact that many homosexuals will not admit their lifestyle. Nor will many drug users admit to drug use. Avoidance of prostitutes, bi-sexual men, and intravenous drug users as sexual partners will reduce the risk to very low levels, but not to the “virtually impossible” level. 

The CDC estimated that a man having vaginal sex with an HIV infected women has a 1 in 1000 chance of being infected. This is every time it happens, so over the years the odds increase. I was not able to find a reference on the CDC site, but this paper on why AIDS is so prevalent in Africa and on the effects of circumcision on aids transmission (it halves the risk) references it. 

Years ago I saw a skit on the comedy show “Living Color.” Two people were about to have sexual relations. They talked about their previous liaisons. Suddenly every person either had ever had sex with appeared in the room. The woman was clearly upset that some of the man’s previous partners looked better than she did. The man that appeared in his group was explained by the man saying “I was in jail once.” The skit never did explain the white (both actors in the skit were black) meek accountant that appeared on the woman’s side of the bed. 

Often comedy can bring forward important points in a memorable way. When you sleep with someone you are also sleeping with every person they ever slept with. 

I Corinthians 6 talks about this issue:

¹² ”I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything. ¹³ You say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.” The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. ¹⁴ By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. ¹⁵ Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! ¹⁶Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” ¹⁷ But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.

 ¹⁸ Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.¹⁹ Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; ²⁰ you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

So to answer the now deleted Facebook thread, yes sexual immorality is wrong. This includes homosexual acts. 

I will talk about Sodom and Gomorrah later as their fate relates to the theme I am developing on war.