dawn stefanowicz

[inca nitta]

I just saw a website of Dawn Stefanowicz, whose link I dared not to post, because most likely it would violate the forum's guidelines. But I would like to know from those who are aware of who she is and what she does: what do ya'll think? Should she be taken seriously? If yes, to what extent? Does anybody think that she is just a hateful antigay person promoting her vicious agenda? Or maybe she just had a bad experience with her parents?

Any thoughts, comments, reflections.

thanks,

Inca Nitta.

[keltic63]

I googled her, and after reading the previews of the search results I remembered the story. She was raised by gay parents and is claiming that her life is a wreck because of it. She has a book coming out (or is already out) and it uses her personal story to affirm every anti-gay speaking point the American Family Association has ever made. We are then to believe that because her life is a mess and that she had gay parents, that gay parents are bad.

the problem with that equation is that if a person has a messed up life, and has straight parents who behaved badly, then all heterosexual parents are bad parents.

I think that this is fairly easy to see, but of course, when she appears on Fox, or 700 Club, or Focus on the Family, no one will think to mention all the messed up kids of straight parents.

[tdogg]

WAit till Bill O'Reilly has her on his show!

These are the kind of facts that we need to be educating the general non-informed public regarding, but how do we do that? We don't have a 700 club of our own, with our own TV station. We likely woudn't get many to watch anything we could possibly put on Logo or HERE. Articles, letters in the newspaper? They are basically rebutted by the general ignorant (I say that in the nicest way) people who have no clue.

It's frustrating. They won't read our books or watch our shows. They only stick to their own and believe everything that is said, ignoring the facts and evident to follow someone's personal issue bandwagon which more often than not is a lie.

I think the answer lies in coming out, living out and living proud. That's the only way we can really continue to get the message out and educate people.

[pnggrad79]

I think you are absolutely right Keltic. Gay parents can mess up kids just like straight parents can, and most certainly do. I am sick to death of the implication that just because parents are gay, that that automatically makes a kids life bad. That is faulty generalization, but that is exactly what people like Dobson will do. I can cite example after example, as I know you can, of kids who have been royally screwed up because of straight parents, and it had nothing to do with their sexuality or lack there of. Most gay people I know, unlike myself, don't have children (present company excluded) What Dobson doesn't realize is that gay people have the same issues straight people have, only greater. Because we can't get married in this country and our relationships aren't recognized on so many levels, it isn't surprising to me that that doesn't filter down into our children's lives. But Dobson has the nerve to point a finger at me, and say it is because I am gay?

My kids may have their faults, but by and large, they are good kids. Keltic, I have seen the wonderful job you have done with your kids. Whoever this Dawn person is, she needs to take responsibility for her own actions and quit pointing fingers. She happened to grow up with gay parents, and she didn't come with an instruction manual, and I am sure they did the best they could with the resources they came with, both mentally and emotionally. That is not to say they were perfect or did everything right, but I don't know any parent that is perfect.

My straight laced, Christian, Baptist sister has a son, who she doesn't know where he is most of the time, and worries about what he is doing, and for good reason. He made choices that he wasn't raised with. But you can't judge my sister by her son, or her parenting abilities. She did the best with what she had at the time. He made his own choices when he got older.

This chick Dawn needs to go on with herself and be quiet.

[RedneckDyke]

I listen to a good local talk radio program here. One of the hosts says that when people watch fox news or shows like coulter or the 700 club that they are looking for AFFIRMATION not INFORMATION. Meaning that they have their mind made up and are looking for someone on TV to agree with them.
As sad as this book is, I take comfort in that she is probably not going to change many minds but is preaching to the fundie choir.

[BruceChris]

It would seem to me that someone should take Dawn by the scruff of the neck, and show her some disfunctional straight families. Yes, there are disfunctional families out there, gay and straight. And there are very warm and supportive families, gay and straight. She is being extreemly dishonest, by not looking at all of the data.

Perhaps she should consider that disfunctional straight families often bring more than their share of children into the world. Disfunctional people like sex at least as much as the rest of us, but it takes a lot more focused effort for a gay or lesbian couple to have a child. I would have to assume that proportionately, there are far fewer disfunctional gay couples than straight bringing children into the world. I would tend to see that as a no brainer.

Namaste', Bruce Chris

[Emproph]

Study: HIV-positive Practicing Homosexual Men 9000% More Likely to Develop Anal Cancer

Edit:

From the American Cancer Society:
Anal cancer is found mainly in adults, with the average age being in the early 60s. The disease affects women somewhat more often than men. Of the 4,650 new cases, 2,750 will occur in women and 1,900 in men.

Most doctors think that squamous cell anal cancer is caused by a type of this virus called HPV-16 (Human Papilloma Virus). [end edit]

And who can resist the ever -- not Paul Cameron -- John R. Diggs:
The Health Risks of Gay Sex John R. Diggs, JR. M.D.
___

It's little more than a hate site. Those are only two examples, and those were only titles.

Any complaint of bad parenting, coming from her, that may have been the direct result of same gender attraction, in and of itself, is quickly and decidedly nullified by her anti-gay stance. She's not against bad parenting, she's against gay parenting.

Thus the need to lie.

[pnggrad79]

Originally Posted by BruceChris

It would seem to me that someone should take Dawn by the scruff of the neck, and show her some disfunctional straight families. Yes, there are disfunctional families out there, gay and straight. And there are very warm and supportive families, gay and straight. She is being extreemly dishonest, by not looking at all of the data.

Perhaps she should consider that disfunctional straight families often bring more than their share of children into the world. Disfunctional people like sex at least as much as the rest of us, but it takes a lot more focused effort for a gay or lesbian couple to have a child. I would have to assume that proportionately, there are far fewer disfunctional gay couples than straight bringing children into the world. I would tend to see that as a no brainer.

Namaste', Bruce Chris

I challenge this Dawn person to enter into any public school in America and you will see the results of dysfunctional straight parenting. I have so much of that in my class, and yet these people are allowed to reproduce without reservation because they are straight and it doesn't matter that they are producing children with no more intelligence than their parents. Moreover, I can't even begin to name the parents who are locked up in jail for repeated offenses, alcoholism, drug abuse, you name it. Half my children go to visit parents in jail. Now, tell me that straight people should have the exclusive right to reproduce? I think they need an application process and someone to look them in the face and say, "What makes you think this is a good idea?"

[ladyinred]

Wouldn't it be nice though if we had the leverage and coverage of the 700 club?

[Vanessa White]

Considering that she has made appearances all over the US as well. Once again, other issues related to her having a messed up childhood are just generalized to her being screwed up because she was raised by her gay dad. It really is just one more clear, harsh example of how "facts" get skewed to satisfy an agenda. The thing is, we as LGBT persons get accused of doing the same thing much of the time, but we have so much more at stake I believe, we are very clear about stating facts and backing up our statements with sources. Not all of the time, but at least we aspire to that. This is inflammatory, and agreed with Emproph, nothing more than a hate site. I've seen it and that is all I need to do.

[tdogg]

Originally Posted by ladyinred

Wouldn't it be nice though if we had the leverage and coverage of the 700 club?

Yes it would be nice, and it would be the moment when we really start making some progress!! But we don't have jillions of dollars to put into TV programming, we are busy living our lives, helping others and paying our bills.

[keltic63]

Originally Posted by ladyinred

Wouldn't it be nice though if we had the leverage and coverage of the 700 club?

Originally Posted by tdogg

Yes it would be nice, and it would be the moment when we really start making some progress!! But we don't have jillions of dollars to put into TV programming, we are busy living our lives, helping others and paying our bills.

Now you've got me thinking. Why don't we have the coverage, and thus the leverage, of groups like the 700 Club and Focus on the Family.

I'm not sure that lack of money is the answer, and I'm not sure that our individual busy lives is exactly it. Afterall, some of us could be busy producing influential gay-oriented talk shows. I think the answer lies in at least 2 reasons: Demographics- Evangelical Christians accounted for 26% of the US population in 2004, according to Wikipedia; and an AGENDA- Evangelicals have a very clearly defined agenda that includes evangelizing the world, influencing others to believe and worship as they do, and they truly believe that they are involved in a spiritual battle that has eternal consequences. Some even believe that it is their job to prepare the earth for the second coming of Christ; that Jesus can not and will not return until certain requirements are met and it is the Christian's job to bring the world into submission, ready to hand it over to Christ.

Demographics for the lgbt community puts us anywhere from 1-10% of the population, so immediately the demand for such a television show would be much less than the evangelical talk show. Contrary to what the evangelicals/fundies would have you believe, there is no gay agenda. We are not a focused group of people. We have no desire to recruit others, and much like the straight population, there is a great variety of interests among the glbt population.

[tdogg]

I would have to agree with you Keltic. And I also think, if we did pool the money together, it likely would be used for more compassionate purposes (hence the helping others).

I had no idea regarding the 26%. That's a huge population, which would account for the enormous $$ being given to the televanglists. Ok, so I'm dreaming here, but let me run with it for a second - sometimes when criminals are caught, especially with white collar crime, they must pay restitution. So, one day, justice is served and those who have oppressed us for so long must now pay restitution....we get our 700 club (let's not call it that) and get to put on our GLBT telethons (Ok, I AlMOST wrote 'telethongs' which is probably more applicable!). But then, if we got that far, we wouldn't need the TV coverage...

[keltic63]

Originally Posted by tdogg

I would have to agree with you Keltic. And I also think, if we did pool the money together, it likely would be used for more compassionate purposes (hence the helping others).

I had no idea regarding the 26%. That's a huge population, which would account for the enormous $$ being given to the televanglists. Ok, so I'm dreaming here, but let me run with it for a second - sometimes when criminals are caught, especially with white collar crime, they must pay restitution. So, one day, justice is served and those who have oppressed us for so long must now pay restitution....we get our 700 club (let's not call it that) and get to put on our GLBT telethons (Ok, I AlMOST wrote 'telethongs' which is probably more applicable!). But then, if we got that far, we wouldn't need the TV coverage...

ok, but if it's a teleTHONG, there's got to be some coverage!

[BruceChris]

Not even on Baywatch.

P&L, BC

[ladyinred]

Another thing to consider is these evangelicals often happen to have help from their big corporate friends,Coors for example. They just don't get money from ordinary people

[ladyinred]

As far as the daughter of the gay dad, she's like one needle in the hay stack, now if there were alot like her I'd be concerned, but it does give the rr more ammunition for their propaganda spinning machine. and they will of course use it to their advantage and ditort things as usual. One person hardly represents the whole.

[tdogg]

Originally Posted by BruceChris

Not even on Baywatch.

P&L, BC

Well darn it, about time to change all that. I say all us GLBT (and anyone else) put on our thongs and get some coverage!!!

[Alecto]

I thought that was the point...it's difficult to do both.

[Emproph]

Originally Posted by inca nitta

I just saw a website of Dawn Stefanowicz, whose link I dared not to post, because most likely it would violate the forum's guidelines. But I would like to know from those who are aware of who she is and what she does: what do ya'll think? Should she be taken seriously? If yes, to what extent? Does anybody think that she is just a hateful antigay person promoting her vicious agenda? Or maybe she just had a bad experience with her parents?

Any thoughts, comments, reflections.

thanks,

Inca Nitta.

So what do you think Inca Nitta?