Elonka wrote:
] ] To the outside world, Zanzibar is a laid-back tourist's
] ] paradise but in recent months, Islamic groups have
] ] spearheaded a campaign to cleanse the island of
] ] "corrupting" practices such as homosexuality and alcohol.
] ]
] ] In August, the government of the semi-autonomous island
] ] archipelago that forms part of Tanzania, outlawed gay sex
] ] and set prison terms of up to 25 years for men and seven
] ] years for lesbians.
]
] Well first, I'm appalled. But second, this makes me think
] about an interesting side question related to the gay marriage
] issue in the U.S. If we did legalize gay marriage, would that
] make the Islamic fundamentalists hate us more? Or what about
] other "regular" countries that weren't Islamic, but did have
] more conservative social views... Would it make them have a
] lower opinion of the U.S.? And how much should that factor
] into our decision?
]
] It seemed that during our election season, there were a lot of
] Americans (especially liberals) calling for us to make
] decisions in order to have the respect of other countries.
] Should our stand on gay marriage be considered in the same
] light, in terms of how other countries perceive us?

Yes, our stance should be considered in the same light. And just about every other western democracy is moving to, or already has, legalized gay marriage.

Weren't you the one who was happy to vote a nice big "screw you" to Osama? :)

] Yes, our stance should be considered in the same light. And
] just about every other western democracy is moving to, or
] already has, legalized gay marriage.

Can you send me a source on that? I'm aware of legalized gay marriages in Holland and Belgium, and parts of Canada, but most of the rest seem to be about limited forms of civil unions, if anything at all.

Elonka wrote:
] ] To the outside world, Zanzibar is a laid-back tourist's
] ] paradise but in recent months, Islamic groups have
] ] spearheaded a campaign to cleanse the island of
] ] "corrupting" practices such as homosexuality and alcohol.
] ]
] ] In August, the government of the semi-autonomous island
] ] archipelago that forms part of Tanzania, outlawed gay sex
] ] and set prison terms of up to 25 years for men and seven
] ] years for lesbians.
]
] Well first, I'm appalled. But second, this makes me think
] about an interesting side question related to the gay marriage
] issue in the U.S. If we did legalize gay marriage, would that
] make the Islamic fundamentalists hate us more? Or what about
] other "regular" countries that weren't Islamic, but did have
] more conservative social views... Would it make them have a
] lower opinion of the U.S.? And how much should that factor
] into our decision?
]
] It seemed that during our election season, there were a lot of
] Americans (especially liberals) calling for us to make
] decisions in order to have the respect of other countries.
] Should our stand on gay marriage be considered in the same
] light, in terms of how other countries perceive us?

Fine, I'm capable of playing this game. No. It won't. Islamic fundamentalists already hate us to the point of shooting, blowing up and beheading us. I don't think letting gay people get married would have any effect whatsoever. None.

Second, having read this, I can only think you bought Bush's "global test" line of crap. What Kerry said was that if we had really crossed our t's and dotted our i's, the French, Germans, Russians and probably everyone else would be over there with us just like they were in 1991. We didn't, they aren't. End of story. If we want to do something domestically, that's one thing. What that was talking about in the campaign was foreign relations.

You're mixing your apples and oranges.