Tim Townsend made a splash the other day ^[1] with his story about Archbishop

^[2]

credit:MiamiHerald

Carlson sending money to help fund the Maine fight against gay marriage. Townsend must have set a record for the comment board. As of this writing there are 153 comments and counting ^[3].

Most of the comments seem to be from outside our usual St. Louis Post-Dispatch Civil Religion readership, as JoeL mentioned in comment #145:

This first thing I noticed when reading though the comments to this story is that – like the archdiocese’s use of funds in this political campaign – comments don’t seem to be too local. Unless this hot-button issue fired up some local pro-gay marriage folks who don’t normally participate, it APPEARS the comments are coming from outside the typical STLToday readership. There aren’t too many familiar names, which is perfectly legitimate. The commentary on this blog has all the likings of hissy fit.

But I have a question for those who are upset at the St. Louis Archdiocese’s “intrusion” in an election more than 1,000 miles to the east: Does it upset you when campaign contributions from across the country go to support, say, the Jay Nixon gubernatorial campaign?

Yes, a lot of out-of-town — and in-town — pitched hissy fits.

I wasn’t surprised by the vitriol but I was surprised this seemed to be a news story. Various religious groups donate money hither and yon, under tightly controlled regulations, and have been doing so for years. As Tim Townsend wrote,

It is illegal for tax exempt religious organizations to participate in political campaigns for candidates, but they can “engage in advocating for or against issues and, to a limited extent, ballot initiatives or other legislative activities,” according to Internal Revenue Service regulations.

Actually there was some news about gays last week, but it came from abroad so didn’t get much play here. LifeSiteNews reported this from Manchester, England:

MANCHESTER, England, November 9, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – OutRage!, a militant U.K. homosexual ‘rights’ group, is insisting that homosexual sex in public places, a practice known as ‘cruising,’ should be tolerated by police. ^[4]According to PinkNews.co.uk ^[5], a U.K. homosexual news source, the group has said that cruising is “an important part of the gay community and cannot be ignored,” in the words of the reporter.

The canal area in Manchester has long been a popular spot for cruising, but PinkNews reports that the area has been built up, resulting in more complaints from local people. In response, the Manchester police have begun patrolling the area more diligently, and potential ‘cruisers’ are being warned that they could face arrest.

OutRage! is calling for a “sensible, long-term and fair approach” to the issue, recommending tolerated ‘cruising areas.’

Gay public sex is not new, of course. However the idea of police looking the other way when there are “more complaints from local people” as well as public decency laws that arguably should be followed in many of these cases does leave the police looking as though they are caving in to aggressive, organized gay pressure.

The Folsom Street Fair ^[6] in San Francisco routinely displays full nudity, sexual acts and blasphemous sex toys — all in public, on the street in view of all, including children and a seemingly uninterested press.

Years ago when I was writing op/eds occasionally for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, I watched the morning-to-night C-Span coverage of a large Washington DC gay rights gathering. At first all was decorum and tightly written speeches. As the day wore on, the speeches became looser, more vulgar and by the end of the day the folks on hand seemed ready for an orgy.

I happened to mention this to a colleague who then told me her sister-in-law, a self-identified lesbian, had attended the gathering. To her disgust, this woman saw public gay sex in all sorts of forms as she left the rally.

Which brings me to the point of this post. Are there others in the Lesbian/Gay/Transgendered community who blush at public gay sex? Are there those who understand that this behavior is counterproductive?  If they are there, do they have any clout in their larger community?

Where are their voices?