DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

Mark Morford asks, What are you so afraid of?

This is my favorite part (well, aside from “Fear is the new black”):

Try this test. Ask your neighborhood neoconservative homophobe just what, exactly, would happen if, say, gay marriage were to be legalized nationwide.
Ask them what would change. Ask them to be very specific. How would their lives be threatened? How would society crumble, exactly? Riots? Locusts?

I actually did this once. I didn’t realize he was a neoconservative homophobe at the time. We were having dinner at a nice restaurant with two other people. Someone mentioned a California initiative regarding, I think, adoption rights for same-sex couples, and unwittingly I voiced my support. I thought it was a no-brainer… adoption is a good thing. Broken homes are a bad thing. Foster care is the band-aid on the bullet hole.

This person had a different opinion, which he proceeded to share, along with some spittle and maybe a few used bits of table bread. He launched into a fire-and-brimstone tirade about, basically, the evils of homosexuality. The other guests were embarrassed for both our sakes.

His argument was that children raised by same-sex couples couldn’t possibly end up with healthy attitudes about sex and relationships, because they’d have no male role model. (He was already apoplectic at the thought of lesbian couples — I can’t imagine how he’d have responded to the idea of male gay couples. I think I’d have had to take his fork away from him.)

I said that hetero couples are equally capable of raising kids with unhealthy attitudes. He agreed with me but countered that I hadn’t addressed the point, which was true enough. I was never on the debate team.

So, he won the argument. I could tell because he ordered a fat bowl of bread pudding for dessert. In contrast, I didn’t feel well enough to finish my dinner.