Personally, I would fight tooth and nail to allow someone the right to espouse an opinion that I would shout from the rooftops to oppose. That’s what free speech is. The fact that we’re opposed to her opinion and think she is harming society with her pious self-righteous attempts at dampening other’s expression of happiness has nothing to do with her right to hold or express those opinions.

Of course, her letters to the school board are more than just an expression of free speech. That was an attempt to keep Mehta from expressing his opinion. She was obviously trying to affect his employment because she didn’t like what he said in his blog.

So, I’m opposed to her opinion about kissing and I’m opposed to her attempts to censor free speech. Though, I still support her right to hold and express those opinions, just not at the expense of others.

The suicide rate among gay and lesbian teens is about thirty percent higher than the national average. Intolerant families and communities have a lot to do with that.

Mothers with babies in strollers would stop, cover their baby’s eyes so baby couldn’t see us holding hands, and give us dirty looks. Little old ladies with blue hair would spit at us. Passing young men would call us “perverts” and “faggots”.

It’s easy to freak the mundanes in this country. They’re so very, very mundane.

Things are rather better in Boston now. Gay couples holding hands or kissing in public remain uncommon, but are no longer unheard of and go largely un-remarked-upon. But, go just an hour out of the city and life is very different. I was recently dating a guy from a medium sized town in New Hampshire, and when he visited me in Boston, he was afraid to hold hands or kiss me if he wasn’t sure nobody was around and nobody was looking. I assured him we were quite safe, but he was simply too afraid.

The country needs to see gay guys kissing. Children need to see it. Everyone needs to confront the sight and learn to be able to say “yeah, whatever.” Otherwise, we gay guys will always be second class citizens.

In all seriousness, I don’t understand this rather Puritan attitude many people have towards public displays of affection. It’s not like there’s anything wrong with it. Of course, if I see a couple kissing in public/full-blown making out every few minutes, I may be inclined to think “Get a room”, but that’s for when people go overboard with it, not for a simple kiss in public.

As a member of one of those “multi-partner unions” I have to wonder… given the previously mentioned difficulty inherent in kissing more than one individual at a time, how can the IFI be sure they’re properly identifying all instances of obscene kissing?

If I kiss my husband in public and my boyfriend isn’t there, is that still obscene? How about if I kiss my husband, and his girlfriend is within sight, but she brought her own date?

Considering we’re all (currently) in heterosexual configurations, how would they know we were “perverts” without stalking us? Will their children still be damaged by our kissing if we’re never positively identified as polyamorous?*ponders*

This is one of the more awesome comments I’ve seen in this blog. What a huge gaping hole you have just placed in that argument. Bravo!