Query

[Tante Shvester]

Lots of laudanum.  Laudanum and laxatives.  Because the laudanum is so constipating, I guess.

[imogen]

I think all people are potentially gay, in the same sense that all people are potentially anorexic.  I think some people fall easily into it, and pretty much anyone could be trained into it.  But that's very different from saying everyone is anorexic until proven otherwise.

Excuse me?  

I think all people are potentially gay, in the same sense that all people are potentially anorexic.

You know what?  I have really liked reading (and sporadically, I know, interacting with) this board, partly because I have been able to grow to appreciate people with a very different view from mine.  

But the idea that gay can be equated with anorexia without even an eyebrow raised - d'you guys not see any difference?

[pooka]

I usually use obesity as the analogy.  Do you think of that as less of an eating disorder than anorexia?  Because it kills way more people.  It's all a matter of perspective.  No one gives electro-shock therapy to overeaters, there is plenty of social acceptance that it's simply another way of being human.  I don't think gay people or disordered eaters see themselves as evil, nor do I think they are personally evil, but I don't think their actions are morally neutral.  

[Tante Shvester]

Well, yeah.  But I thought I'd said too much already, so I was holding my tongue, for once.

But thanks, Imogen, for validating my feelings about that comparison.

[pooka]

My views in no way reflect any kind of universal Mormon position.  They are just my own weird little thoughts, so don't make it the whole board's issue.  Perhaps you should PM me.

[Porter]

But the idea that gay can be equated with anorexia without even an eyebrow raised - d'you guys not see any difference?

Pooka didn't equate gay with anorexia.  She said that they shared one aspect, that anybody has the potential to be that way. Her words were "I think all people are potentially gay, in the same sense that all people are potentially anorexic."

It's like saying "Pooka is female, in ths same sense that Brinestone is female."  Pooka is not Brinestone, and I never said they were.  I just said that they have a characteristic in common.

[pooka]

Sorry, I've had a hot and cold day.  I shouldn't have gotten defensive.  I hope you'll stick around more, Imogen.  

[Jonathon]

You know what?  I have really liked reading (and sporadically, I know, interacting with) this board, partly because I have been able to grow to appreciate people with a very different view from mine. 

But the idea that gay can be equated with anorexia without even an eyebrow raised - d'you guys not see any difference?

I definitely see a difference, but like Porteiro, I didn't think pooka was saying they were the same. And to be honest, I was so weirded out by the whole conversation that I didn't really know how to respond and thus decided to just ignore it.

[rivka]

^ Precisely.