I don't see anybody "defending" them.
I am not defending them. I don't think dabateman is either.
I personally do not approve. I wish that laws on nudity would be more enforced.

But the presence of "nudity" practiced by less than 1% of the whole does not diminish the entire group.
This ties into my Republican example later...

Again, you fail to appreciate the context of the analogy.
You blame gay pride for the presence of nudity.
The analogy would be to blame spring break or even heterosexuality for the presence of girls gone wild.


A lot of us do.
But also there is the concept of freedom. An insistence on not censoring people.
You seem to present this as if the majority WANT the nudity present.
By the same token, I could argue that Republicans WANT the racist elements present at the various rallies...


Gay pride is not "proudly celebrating" nudists present.
You seem to assume that just because the nudists are present, they are endorsed by gay pride.
Likewise, I'm going to assume that since there are racists present at Republican rallies, they are proudly endorsed...

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“Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.”
~Abraham Lincoln

I would hope you would appreciate that the presence of such nudity only makes up less than 1% of the entire group present at these events.
Hopefully you wouldn't judge the 99% based on the extreme actions of the 1%...

__________________
“Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.”
~Abraham Lincoln

I think he does have a point in that, unfortunately, the media does love to pick out the tiny percentage of participants and focus on them instead of the other aspects of the event such as charity work and community development/support.

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Continue that line of reasoning, Muffin... I'm judging you. Harshly.

No more than some anti gun folks judge all gun owners over Joe redneck in a you tube video.

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I don't have much ammo, but will gladly waste some on you!

Republicans and Tea Par tiers are regularly depicted as racists with no evidence at all, such as Congressman Lewis claiming he was spit upon and called the n-word. But the gay community cannot make nudists and those engaging in lewd behavior unwelcome as an expression of pride in an identity?

Imagine the loss of credibility if civil rights demonstrations had included nudity and lewd conduct as an expression of black pride. Why should gay pride marches be treated differently?

I think the assertion you make is fundamentally flawed. There should be no demonstration of "credibility" for legal equality.

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Continue that line of reasoning, Muffin... I'm judging you. Harshly.

I'm sorry, but what conclusion are YOU reaching out of this...

A) Would you say that it's NOT okay for such stereo-types to be made regarding Republicans & Tea Partiers, and NOT okay for gays as well?
B) Or would you say that it's NOT okay for such stereo-types to be made regarding Republicans & Tea Partiers, but OKAY to stereo-type gays?

I would choose A. Neither is okay.
If you agree, then we have (gasp) agreement...
If you are choosing B, then you are being hypocritical here. Not me...

Are you kidding me?
There is a parallel here.

Martin Luther King Jr. had an issue with adultery / infidelity. By some accounts, including underage girls.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin...ns_of_adultery

Should the validity of black rights be judged by MLK's actions?
Some racists would argue "Yes" and they make a point of showing his sexual proclivities.

On a more general scale, blacks have a higher incarceration rate. Higher unwed mother rate. Higher abortion rates, higher STD rates, blah, blah, blah...
Should THAT hold blacks back for equality?

If you want to talk about "being treated differently", then I would say that some racists HAVE TRIED to hold blacks back by such scandals, but there is no logic there. Equality is not dictated by moral approval. It is definitely not dictated for the 99% based on whether or not 1% behaves badly.
I think that's something fundamental that some conservatives do not grasp.

__________________
“Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.”
~Abraham Lincoln

I like that example.
Hopefully you won't mind if I use it in the future.

__________________
“Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.”
~Abraham Lincoln

But here's the problem.

1.) I have never seen or heard of a gay pride proponent warn families about bringing their kids to one of their parades, even knowing this sort of stuff is taking place in one of these parades. (If they HAVE, then I'll gladly stand corrected.)

2.) I've never heard of any real outrage over this stuff on any serious level in the WAKE of one of these parades in the gay pride community. Or DURING a parade.

3.) The "less than 1%" argument you're making is a terrible one. Even less than 1%, it is a MAJOR issue when it's something like public nudity. If a Christmas parade had one SINGLE person in it marching nude out of 500 floats and many more individuals, it would be considered a real problem and the person would be kicked out of the parade more than likely by its ORGANIZERS. Yet the organizers of some of your major parades don't seem to care, as they continually let it go on. Now, if you all are content with the parades keeping a reputation as lewd event, fine. (I still think it decency laws should be enforced, but at least you would be consistent in that case.) At least people will know what they're getting into. And THAT is why I said I wanted to make sure Saltwn knew what she was getting into. But I surmise that's NOT how you want these events perceived. So, surely you can see the problem here.

Where did I do that? My blame is in the failure, overall, of the gay pride movement as a whole condemning it and the fact they don't kick these elements out of their events when it is both illegal in most cases, AND inappropriate for general public displays.

Again, take the Christmas parade for example. More than likely nude individuals WOULD be kicked out of such a parade. It's hard to imagine why your movement won't do the same with gay pride parades ... UNLESS they see nudity as more compatible with the gay movement's values.

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What part of "shall not be infringed" do you not understand???

Joe, F66, take it somewhere else. You two have a knack for derailing threads on this matter. Go do it to each other on a different playground.

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Continue that line of reasoning, Muffin... I'm judging you. Harshly.