I read through the "Joe My God" . com news blog that deals with LGBT issues and read an article about Catholic cardinal Timothy Dolan saying that gay men should live a life without ever being romantically or sexually involved with other men. One comment mentioned something about gay men living together as "platonic friends". I am not LGBT, but I thought, "how ridiculous". Timothy Dolan may choose to follow the rule that Roman Catholic clergy are not allowed to date or have sex because of his religious profession, but what right does he have to tell a whole group of people what to do? I don't believe that a close platonic friendship that does not involve romance or sex can make up for the need to be romantically or sexually involved with another consenting adult. Romantic and sexual desires in an adult for another adult is perfectly natural and healthy to me.
A life of choosing to voluntarily follow a rule that requires that you live the rest of your life as a celibate person in order to continue remaining a member of a highly restrictive and exclusive fundamentalist religious, it just doesn't seem very realistic to me. People have the right to make such a choice and I respect their right to do that, but I honestly have to say that I personally don't agree with or respect their reasons for making such a choice. I think that it would be lonely and miserable existence. I think that it would be better to leave such a religious group. It seems to me that such a religious group doesn't want you as a member anyway. I mean, if Yahweh or any other deity is going punish you for choosing to express your sexual feelings, then why wouldn't he punish you for merely having those feelings anyway? There aren't any passages in the Bible that suggest that gay men who choose not to have sex with other men with make it into the afterlife. The authors of the Bible, including Saint Paul seem to view same-sex male relationships as being nothing more than an "abomination' and "shameful lust", that is if you hold to a literal interpretation of these and other Biblical passages.
As for myself, I don't care what the authors of the Bible or any other religious scriptures views on romantic and sexual feelings between adults of the same gender or even same-sex relationships are. To me, the authors' of these scriptures' views on homosexuality are simply wrong. I think they are wrong about a lot of other issues, too. Even if being LGBT was a choice, I still would support other people's right to make such a choice as long as they weren't hurting anyone else. I think sexual relationships between people of the same gender are morally neutral. They are neither "immoral" or "moral" to me. I think that they are entirely healthy if that is how one feels. If Timothy Dolan told unmarried couples to stop having sex, how many of them do you think would listen. I can hear a lot of crickets chirping in the dark on that one. Dolan is entitled to his opinion, but it is an opinion that I disagree with. I don't think that romantic and sexual repression is healthy and I think that it does damage. I just feel sorry for LGBT persons who are involved with the Roman Catholic Church, especially LGBT teenagers who might have heard his words.
Jack and Ennis had to live a life of repression and it didn't seem like it did them an ounce of good. They had to pretend to be something they weren't just to appease other people. They hurt themselves and ended up hurting their families whom they cared deeply about. Pretending to be heterosexual or cisgender if you are LGBT also seems to be unhealthy and damaging to me, nobody should have to do that, although I can understand why some people do. I just feel that it is a shame that people feel like they have to do that to themselves. I just felt the need to mention this because it was something that I needed to talk about.