Gay Proud Loved

I was interested this morning in seeing regular viewers at the end of the morning ABC television show holding up signs with various and sundry messages. The one that caught my eye more than some of the others said, "Gay Proud Loved." I have been thinking about this particular topic due to a recent long spirited debate about the issue with a good friend. Her view is conservative; mine is liberal.

My friend, raised in a Biblically conservative church, kept using words in our conversation like "agenda," "abnormality," "aberration," and "dangerous to America." My words were "rights that every other citizen has," "desire to be loved and accepted in society," and "other interpretations of these New Testament passages." No amount of carefully worded arguments, however, could sway either of us to the other's position. We agreed to disagree on the subject as the old cliche goes.

While I would like to consider myself knowledgeable on the subject, I still (like all of us) have many questions. I just know that all in our society have the same goals: we want a reasonable amount of happiness, love, and respect from our family and peers. We want to be proud of who we are and who God has created us to be. We do not want to be judged by those who have set themselves up as experts of perceived sins of whatever type. Isn't that a sin in itself?

Dying for a Baby

I have found Sunday night particularly difficult to locate an interesting program on television to watch. Therefore, I ended up watching what I would normally consider a trash program, Snapped, on the Oxygen Channel last night. It concerned a stabbing that took place between two young women. One, Sarah Brody, was six days overdue in delivering her baby girl when another woman, supposedly with a similar name, contacted her ostensibly to return baby gifts delivered to her by mistake. In the process of meeting, the second woman pulled out a knife to stab Sarah. She had planned to evidently kill the mother, cut out the baby from the mother's stomach, and become a mother herself. In the scuffle, the woman was stabbed in the shoulder through an important artery and lost her life. She literally died for wanting a baby.

My question about this case centers more on the danger signs this young woman had exhibited for years around her family and friends. Evidently, since the age of 14, she had lied repeatedly about being pregnant. Every time no baby appeared, the woman--whose name was Katie--made up a story about having a miscarriage. When told of Katie's death, the family immediately asked about the status of her unborn child. Was there no one in Katie's life aware enough through the years to get mental counseling for her?

Again, my impression is that counseling might have come down to being able to afford it. We all know that, unless one is fairly well off, mental counseling is simply not available for the average person. At best, even with insurance, the payout is usually one-half of the cost. Without insurance, it can be prohibitive. Could mental health coverage also become a part of the presidential discussion during this election?