Posted on 04/24/2006 11:23:54 AM PDT by DBeers
AMERICA'S most famous homosexual community is grappling with a perplexing situation — how to become family-friendly and still retain its legendary spirit of sexual freedom.
The Castro district of San Francisco has been a magnet for homosexuals since the 1967 "Summer of Love", drawing people from across world with its gay pride parades.
But things are changing thanks, in part, to the so-called "gayby boom", the increasing number of same-sex couples becoming parents.
In California nearly 60,000 children are being raised by same-sex couples. In addition, heterosexual families with children are choosing to live there.
The shift has resulted in tension between parents who want the more explicit window displays and posters toned down, and those determined to guard against any censorship.
Clashes between parents and shopkeepers include complaints from a lesbian mother of two about a shop with a sado-masochistic window display.
Others have complained about explicit shop displays and posters that feature naked, sexually aroused men.
"I am happy that people can enjoy a lifestyle that is denied to them back home in Kansas, but there are appropriate standards of behaviour, regardless of your sexual orientation," Jeremy Paul, a father of two boys, told the Los Angeles Times.
Some shop owners say they have removed the most provocative displays.
Mark Walsh, 50, the manager of a gay sex shop called Rock Hard, said: "There are always a few outspoken couples with children, both heterosexual and gay, who expect everything to be prim and proper.
"But this is the Castro, and anybody who moves here knows what they are moving to. We are very sexual people, and we do tend to flaunt it a little … This is the one place in the country where we can all gather and be ourselves and not have to worry."
Some areas of Castro life are adjusting, with children's menus in restaurants and a new gay family float planned for the gay pride parade.
Thom Lynch, the director of the San Francisco Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Community Centre, said the area was gradually adjusting to its changing make-up.
He had heard of some complaints, including "a woman upset about a Buddhist god with a very large penis".
William Rogers, a city official, said: "Traditionally, the Castro has been about adults, bars, sexual expression and a gay community that has largely focused on adult needs and desires.
"As more lesbian, gay, transgender, bisexual and queer people have children, there is an inherent tension between preserving that adult community and shifting toward a culture that includes children, and in some ways that means altering the meaning of the Castro to include the needs of children."
Mom must be so proud.
Kids raised in San Francisco won't be able to function in the real world. "Mommy, my other Mommy said I could." Heaven forbid, their children will probably be the most hetersexual critters on the block in their drive to be normal.
Kids raised in San Francisco won't be able to function in the real world. "Mommy, my other Mommy said I could." Heaven forbid, their children will probably be the most hetersexual critters on the block in their drive to be normal.
Ditto for me, but I was born in 1972. My secular parents had a low conflict no-fault divorce. And now I am, to quote Mike Pence, a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican. In that order.
This was in 1986, and I also went to Soviet Leningrad. There, many people took baths in the canals because they didn't have running water.
That trip was very eye-opening to me. At 15-years-old, I became the kind of anti-communist that makes Joseph McCarthy look like a moderate.
It worked out that way with David Horowitz (his parents were commies).
AMERICA'S most famous homosexual community is grappling with a perplexing situation — how to become family-friendly and still retain its legendary spirit of sexual freedom.
Simple-- teach the kids to be respectful around adults and to hold their coats when two of them want to take a quick tumble under the bushes in the park.
I'm glad to see that at least some 'get it'.
Oooh, Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore. What in the world are those men doing to each other?
People born in 1980 and later (like me) are considerably farther to the right than their parents.
And isn't htis intersting that some gay "parents" are complaining about gays being so openly displaying their sexuality in front of their kids? I thought only those horrible intolerant bigoted straight parents ever complained about that? /sarc
Its not about ones parents sexual activities, which I personally feel is reason enough.. I've actually walked the Castro... Hedonism II in the caribean is more child appropriate than the Castro.
"being reared by two Dads!"
Reared or rear-ended?
Watermelons, sheep and fenceposts full of knotholes, I guess.
This says it all about the attitude these people have.
I can hear their whining coming through the text loud and clear.
The above statement reminds me of the following:
"Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden..."
In other words, unless you engage in this sinful activity you really are unknowingly deprived of your "freedom". And, of only you participated in this activity, then your eyes would be open and you would see the repression people in Kansas and elsewhere experience.
"You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God,..."
I envision gay parent asking their kids, "why won't you bring him/her home to meet us?"
Look who's coming to dinner...
"Straight we could have delat with! But a born-again Republican! Oh, the Horror!"
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