Maxie,
I commend you on sobering up. Your latest post is more coherent.
If you actually believe Merle is tempting your son with homosexuality you need to do some research, go read his journal again, and maybe get some counselling yourself.
First, Merle does not imply that he is gay. Just the opposite. Go read it again. He does, however, accept gays as equals–and recounts things from his past. So THIS is a temptation for your son? Temptation for what: being a tolerant person, or “becoming” gay?
Second, you cannot truly “change” a person’s true sexual orientation. Not from straight to gay or gay to straight. Yeah, intolerant-types can shame, intimidate, and even use aversion shock therapy to “encourage” someone into pretending to be part of the majority (straight), and at least temporarily alter actual behavior, but you cannot change a person’s true orientation. The world is full of guys (and gals) who won’t stand up to this and form opposite-sex relationships just to hide their true selves from parents, siblings, friends, co-workers. It’s very sad IMHO. Your son reading about a tolerant straight man certainly isn’t going to have any bearing on his orientation, whatever it is.
I sincerely hope that you never have any kids who you discover to be of a minority sexual orientation, Maxie. That kid is going to be fced up for life NOT because of his or her orientation but because of your reaction to it.
Josh said it best, above: “As far as child censorship goes, if you don’t want your son to know anything about other lifestyles, that’s fine, but don’t expect the rest of the world to shelter him for you.”
Maxie