Amazing Dear Abby tells a homophobic couple pretty much they deserve what they got.....

[LynneSin]

I saw this coming. Dear Abby has always been supportive of LGBT causes, which clearly this conservative couple was not aware of when they wrote a letter to Dear Abby complaining that their new neighbors are ignoring them because they didn't include 2 gay couples at their house party. To get a better idea just read the column:

http://www.uexpress.com/dearabby/2014/2/19

My husband and I relocated to Florida a little over a year ago and were quickly welcomed into our new neighbors' social whirl. Two couples in the neighborhood are gay -- one male, one female. While they are nice enough, my husband and I did not include them when it was our turn to host because we do not approve of their lifestyle choices. Since then, we have been excluded from neighborhood gatherings, and someone even suggested that we are bigots!

Abby, we moved here from a conservative community where people were pretty much the same. If people were "different," they apparently kept it to themselves. While I understand the phrase "when in Rome," I don't feel we should have to compromise our values just to win the approval of our neighbors. But really, who is the true bigot here? Would you like to weigh in? -- UNHAPPY IN TAMPA

<<<<click on the link for the response>>>>

[shenmue]

1. "Compromise our values"?

What values are those, being stuck in the book of Leviticus?

[get the red out]

5. LOL their values...

Their values obviously do NOT include "Love thy neighbor".

[monmouth3]

2. Has anyone else noticed that many of the nuts, their problems, and general problems seem

to happen in Tampa? Thank goodness I'm on the other coast...Tampa bad..LOL...

[newfie11]

3. My idiot BIL lives in Tampa

Not where I want to be

[TheBlackAdder]

6. It must be that clean Gulf water and those 3-headed fish there. nt

[shenmue]

8. I live near Tampa

You're pretty much right about it.

[Enrique]

11. actually in this story Tampa is the gay-friendly place

the letter writer moved from some conservative area to the big bad gay-loving liberal city, which in this case is Tampa.

I just moved to Tampa by the way and it doesn't immediately strike me as extraordinarily pro-gay, but that's what this couple apparently experienced.

[LynneSin]

13. Don't we eventually want a country where we don't have to define pro-gay and anti-gay neighborhoods

and instead just say in our country everyone is equal!

I know - it's just a dream but one day!

[Warpy]

18. Most of us want that

but we have a sizable minority of people with chronically puckered butts who react angrily when confronted with anyone who doesn't buy into their rigid notions of white bread behavior.

[Eleanors38]

19. Getting past the HateFlorida Syndrome, Tampa is a big reason the state is turning blue.

It has a huge university (USF), some labor history, and being a major port, home to a wide diversity of peoples. Perhaps the gay couples mentioned have noticed this as well.

[LynneSin]

12. But think about this with Tampa

Somewhere there is a neighborhood with 2 gay couples that are openly accepted by everyone except one homophobic couple.

And even better those straight couples all defend the gay couples not the homophobic one.

[monmouth3]

14. Well I like the way you think and I'm going with that thought...n/t

[theHandpuppet]

4. Darn it! Link didn't work for me.

[bullwinkle428]

9. Here's the reply - I felt compelled to share it, as it was too great to miss!

"DEAR UNHAPPY: I sure would. The first thing I'd like to say is that regardless of what you were told in your previous community, a person's sexual orientation isn't a "lifestyle choice." Gay people don't choose to be gay; they are born that way. They can't change being gay any more than you can change being heterosexual.

I find it interesting that you are unwilling to reciprocate the hospitality of people who welcomed you and opened their homes to you, and yet you complain because you are receiving similar treatment.

From where I sit, you may have chosen the wrong place to live because it appears you would be happier in a less integrated neighborhood surrounded by people who think the way you do. But if you interact only with people like yourselves, you will have missed a chance for growth, which is what you have been offered here. Please don't blow it."

[theHandpuppet]

10. Thanks!

[calimary]

24. Thanks! The link didn't work for me, either.

[MineralMan]

7. Abby let them know how stupid they are.

Good answer. I read that this morning in the paper.

[Warpy]

15. I know, sometimes that column hits one out of the park!

This is just such an example. She didn't tell these godly phobes they were wrong, she rubbed their long blue noses in it.

Unhappy in Tampa needs to go back to whatever lily white, wingnut church infested place they came from.

[LynneSin]

16. I heard there were houses for sale right by Westboro Baptist

Perhaps the neighbors around there might welcome them to their parties

[Warpy]

17. Did you catch the paint job on the one across the street?

It was bought as offices and meeting space by a lefto do gooder who saw who was across the street and reacted accordingly.

[aggiesal]

20. I'll bet that the next thing we hear . . .

is that conservative newspapers around the country will drop
Dear Abby's syndication, because we can't have that gay agenda in our community.

I hope I'm wrong.

[Lizzie Poppet]

21. "...someone even suggested that we are bigots! "

Imagine that...

[LynneSin]

23. What's worse - they would think to call the neighbors 'bigots' because they were excluded

If someone wants to be hateful that's their choice but no one wants to socialize with hate unless they happen to be haters too. Seems like good people in that neighborhood.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

31. Typical reich-wing whining

"You liberals are not tolerant of my rights as a bigot!"

[LynneSin]

32. Right-wing fails to understand that their right to free speech means others have rights...

to free speech too. These people are more than welcome to be opposed to gay neighbors and not invite them to parties at their house. But the neighbors have the same exact rights to free speech to say 'we don't want so socialize with closed-minded assholes'

[Flying Squirrel]

22. I don't understand why she didn't just say

"You are." and leave it at that.

[ohheckyeah]

25. The link doesn't work for me. n/t

[LynneSin]

29. Here's the reply

"DEAR UNHAPPY: I sure would. The first thing I'd like to say is that regardless of what you were told in your previous community, a person's sexual orientation isn't a "lifestyle choice." Gay people don't choose to be gay; they are born that way. They can't change being gay any more than you can change being heterosexual.

I find it interesting that you are unwilling to reciprocate the hospitality of people who welcomed you and opened their homes to you, and yet you complain because you are receiving similar treatment.

From where I sit, you may have chosen the wrong place to live because it appears you would be happier in a less integrated neighborhood surrounded by people who think the way you do. But if you interact only with people like yourselves, you will have missed a chance for growth, which is what you have been offered here. Please don't blow it."

[ohheckyeah]

30. Thank you...

if I had read through the whole thread before I responded I could have saved you the trouble. Sorry.

Good for Abby...stupid people are so annoying.

[HockeyMom]

26. Ybor (Gaybor) City

is one of my favorite places in Florida. Reminds me of my childhood in Greenwich Village. Living and working in Naples, the gay young people here I worked with all said they wanted to move to TAMPA. lol While I don't claim to be an expert (New Yorker) on where to live in Florida, Tampa doesn't sound like the right fit for this kind of couple.