Word AIDS Day

Today being World AIDS Day and everything , and 40 million diagnosed with HIV, I thought this article was pertinent.

Check out this moving story of a courageous HIV survivor Kousalya, in rediff here.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican newspaper said on Tuesday that homosexuality risked "destabilizing people and society," had no social or moral value and could never match the importance of the relationship between a man and a woman.

Check out the rest of the article here.

Its heartening to see the church finally take a stand against homosexuality, in no uncertain terms, and decide, with a firm bias, its views on gays and the alternative lifestyle. But what is still unclear is its views on pedophiles and their initiation into the clergy. Why stop at drawing the line at homosexuality? Pedophilia is criminal behavior and homosexuality is not. Yet.

Why are we tip-toeing around the homosexuality issue? On one hand, in all walks of life, gay men and women are accepted into all strata’s of society. Even celebrated, in some circles. Despite all this, when it comes to be joined in holy matrimony, then public opinions warrant that they ought to be burned at the stakes. Either, we as a society, accept this alternative lifestyle and accord all privileges that are permissible in a conventional relationship or make rules that condemns this lifestyle altogether. No middle ground. Period.

It is time for society puts its foot down and makes up this mind about this issue. Well, this begets the question, society meaning who? This definitely can’t be the governments responsibility, since government only implements rules that have been dictated by society. Religion, as much as I abhor the concept of it, to begin with, is a good start, since religion still dictates the thinking and lifestyle of a majority of the populace. It should then flow down to us, the public, to make our own decisions to deal with the homosexual lifestyle.

Though I firmly believe in the ‘Live and Let live’ dictate, the homosexual lifestyle is something that is forcibly being pushed down our throats. The media, movies, television and even in academia there has been a proliferation of the ‘being gay is cool’ ideology. Gay cliques actively try and recruit kids in schools and college campus. There is an active propaganda by the gay community to exalt the carefree lifestyle, the display of creative talents in the gay community and flex political muscle to further gay causes.

But homosexuality is not an easy issue to tackle, since a lot of aspects, like freedom of expression and our basic inalienable rights to choose the way we live comes under scrutiny. Yes there are no easy solutions, but this is an issue that we shall have to deal head on in the not so distant future. Its not that gays are someone I hate, its just that the sexual preference, in my opinion, is not in the realm of normalcy.