Reply #57: I'm trying to be as honest and fair as possible here.

[Skinner]

Since I'm the owner of this website, then essentially "because I say so" is the reason why we have *any* rules. At least I've got the honesty, integrity, and intelligence to admit that is the case.

As for lacking any objective criteria for making the call here, I have to strongly disagree. I'm certain that my objective, standardized criteria will mean very little to you. And I don't relish the prospect of making ant-choicers' arguments for them, because I disagree strongly. But here goes:

My feeling on individual rights is: As long as you aren't causing harm to anyone else, you should be able to live your life however you please. I didn't make this idea up, by the way. This is a fairly ordinary standard by which individual liberty is judged.

Using this standard, there is absolutely no question that gays should have full and equal rights. Providing gays with equal rights does not cause any harm to anyone.

This standard also leads me to support reproductive freedom, because I do not consider a fetus to be a person, either morally or legally. But I understand that there are plenty of people out there, including plenty of progressives, who do believe that a fetus is a person. And by the standard I have laid out, if you believe a fetus is a person, then you would weigh the rights of the mother against the alleged harm to the fetus.

So yes, the answer is "because I said so" but I am not just arbitrarily enforcing whatever arbitrary lines I feel like enforcing. I am actually using objective, standardized criteria.