Topic: 'Duck Dynasty' star on hiatus for anti-gay comments

[Ratty]

But in general, disagreeing with something and even speaking out about it should not mean you are phobic or hateful.  I'd bet that most of the time, the person who disagrees is neither phobic nor hateful...but nobody cares.  They're too eager to rant, blast, curse, and verbally stone those who disagree to care.  There are those who hatefully and fearfully disagree with something, but not everyone who disagrees is phobic or hateful.  It'd be a nice change for humanity to realize and maybe consider that once and awhile.  We aren't a cookie-cutter race.  Isn't the grand idea of America that many different people are coming together despite their differences?  Why then is our first response to another's difference so often to attack?  Again, in general...Duck Dynasty aside.

Because we have a long history of oppressing those who don't follow social norms. Forgetting all the persecution and discrimination against racial minorities and working women, let's concentrate just on how gays have been treated in recent decades. It wasn't that long ago, well within Robertson's memory, that gay bars were routinely raided by the police just because they could. Sodomy laws were intended (and selectively enforced) to suppress gays. There was wild propaganda implying gays were insane compulsive child murderers. Being outed as gay would almost automatically ruin ones career and could even get them killed. 

When Robertson and his ilk open their mouths to bash gays by casually equating them with terrorists and such they aren't doing it just to "disagree" with things that other people do that are none of their business. They are trying to make us go back to the America I described above. Where it was "ok" to be casually racist, misogynistic or homophobic. (Which doesn't so much imply a phobia as a hatred for gays in today's common usage.) They are trying to prevent more equal treatment for minorities and take away the equal rights minorities have fought hard to attain for decades. So yes, there's a lot of emotion and strong feelings on both sides when someone calls for this reversion, no matter how they say it.

PS- I'm disappointed in A&E for choosing to un-suspend Robertson so they can ride out the $500 million dollar money train rather than stick to their guns and put people before profit. But I'm not very surprised. Looks like we're in for a while longer of the obnoxious merchandise and images of the Richardsons plastered in stores. Oh well, I didn't watch TV before this, won't watch it now.

PPS- A lot of people bring up Robertson's use of the bible in some of his gay bashing comments, as if that somehow makes the comments ok.
How about Deuteronomy 22:12-21, which says a woman who has sex before she is married should be stoned to death? Sanctity of marriage eh?

But what about Deuteronomy 22:11-
Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, as of woollen and linen together.
Or Leviticus 19:19?
Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind: thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed: neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woollen come upon thee.
Sure hope none of that camouflage they always wear mixes fabrics.

[Highwind Dragoon]

Yeah, A&E capitulated to the ignorant mob, only knew about the show because my mom watched it, doubt anyone in our house is going to watch it or A&E anymore. 

And to announce it on a Friday after 5 PM!??!?!!?  WTF.......

[X]

All i can say about them is... one step forward two steps back.

[Belmontoya]

History will not look back on people who oppose the homosexual lifestyle favorably. They have no legitimate leg to stand on. Hiding their intolerance and hatred beneath a veil of religion only worsens their plight, as it did the Nazis and the KKK. These individuals may not be violent, or militarized, but they are still poisoned in their minds and they inflict pain on people. 

It will be similar to how we look back on those who opposed female rights and black rights. They were misguided, obtuse, and down right hateful.

I'm just glad that I wasn't brought up in an ignorant house of bigots who can't see past their own horizon. People like these duck dynasty characters are what's wrong with America. They are sinking in the quick sand of the past, writhing and clenching to the thin branches of a tree, while the world embraces the future. Soon they will all sink into the muddy past, and all they will be remembered for is the pain they caused and the hate they spread.

I think the entire duck dynasty family should be banned from standing in front of cameras of any kind for the rest of their lives. But then, I felt that way before this whole anti-gay interview took place. All it did was confirm what I already felt about those neanderthals.