Well said. The problem I see with religious people who hold themselves as moral authorities over LGBT is not just a lack of reason, logic, understanding, compassion and intellectual integrity, but a severe arrogant grip on almost every type of fallacy listed. 

http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/

When asked people to back up their vehement hate with what they think are facts they refer to more fallacies in the process. Whether those fallacies be belief, tradition, straw-man, ad homonym, slippery slope, middle ground or authoritative, anyone who can point out their fallacies as they are presented is usually met with an insult or a threat. If we ask genuine solid questions but the answers we receive are not answers but threatening, insulting or dissuading responses then we should ask ourselves this important question:

"What is so fragile that it cant hold up to sustained scrutiny and needs threats to protect it?" -TheraminTrees

Science on the other hand looks at the facts and draws conclusions from them, where the religious mind makes up conclusions and tries to find facts that support their conclusions. This ability to find supportive facts for conclusions that dont align with reality is not difficult but actually very simple. The challenge is finding the sources of those facts and seeing if they are bias or not. Science has no place for bias studies and any study that tries to pass it self off  as an ultimate conclusion and is not supported by a major scientific organization should be considered bias or just false. One can simply go to www.NARTH.com read their studies then compare them to real psychologist at. 

http://www.apa.org/topics/sorientation.html

and

http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/facts_mental_health.html

After doing so it wont be hard to conclude which side is bias and which side not. Also if you pry further into NARTHs website you can find many links and quotes to and from religious groups that openly speak out against the integration and normalization of gay people and their families.

This leads me to another point about religion: one can be a religious person but if one decides to impose their views onto others, others have a right to question the soundness of such arguments that person makes and receive nonthreatening non-dissuasive answers. If the person cannot give such answers then we must ask "What is the validity of this persons bias against group X, and will reaction Y really happen if we side with group X. It could simply just be a personal bias this person created, out of indoctrination of stereotypes and common practice of others who are against group X.

For example: lets bring up a simple situation. Jimmy is a good christian boy raised by what society would call good christian parents. Jimmy's mother told him ever since he was a little boy that gay men are all effeminate and women like. That they cross dress and are anti-god and anti-christian. This creates a stereotype in Jimmy's mind about all gay people. This is called an authoritative fallacy and because of our genetics we are all very susceptible to this type of fallacy.

Now although what Jimmy was told isnt reality it dictates to him his mental reality. Now lets say Jimmy watches the news and it covers a pride parade but the camera people only cover the cross dressers in the crowed or those that carry signs that condemn religious belief. This physical experience now reinforces into Jimmy that all gay people are this way. This is called stereotype filtering. Now only effeminate gay men who have severe distaste for religion can get through that stereotype filter.

When a masculine gay male by the name of Brock sits down with Jimmy in church. Jimmy wont even recognize this person is gay because he doesn't fit the perceived stereotypes of what he was told. This is denial. But what if Brock comes out and openly says he is gay and a christian. Now Jimmy is left with rationalizing the situation to the best of his abilities. This can go in two direction. It either destroys the stereotypes or rearranges his prejudices. In reality the latter happens in most situation. Jimmy then twist reality to conform to the stereotypes he was taught about gay men; which would be that either Brock is not gay, or he is pretending to be masculine and christian because no gay male is either. This is called distortion and it is what happens often when fundamentalist are met with the reality and dichotomy of gay people. This happens all to often when gay families come out in the open to support themselves in their fight for equal rights.

We as Human beings need to look past what tradition. scripture, and authoraties dictates to us, and be open to question everything that has been taught to us. As they say: "Healthy scepticism of religion is deadly to religion. Whereas healthy scepticism of science is what science loves." If something feels that its beliefs are above being questioned, but provides no answers to its reasons, what does that say about the veracity of such beliefs?

In fact one can read this little peice about how homosexuality is an illness and can be cured then follow below the passage

http://www.tldm.org/News11/GroundbreakingStudyShowsGaysCanChange.htm

Here is one thing they state.

"AN  ABOMINATION
"Man shall not condone evil or rationalize sin. Homosexuality is an abomination in the eyes of God and man! The Creator condemns those who do not repent of this sin." Our Lady, August 5, 1977"

One can clearly see that if this wasn't a bias piece of scientific literature then why are there extremely bias anti-gay quotes at the end of it? Science does not make claims like this and when people post work that has this type of bias it is clear it is far from scientific and even farther from reality.

     There is faith (real faith not just a belief system) and then there is what you describe above. I have to admit that what you describe is much more common.

     These issues that you raise don't just apply to religious belief, but can be witnessed in nationalism, protectionism, patriotism and any other sundry philosophies and beliefs. It seems to be a human weakness that is all too common.

     I believe that at its root lie fear and greed. Greed, as I use it, is any imbalanced or unhealthy desire for gain whether this be a desire for material gain, for prestige, for power, favor (divine or human) etc...

     False leaders (sincere and cynical) dangle a fulfillment of desires (eternal rewards or the American Dream etc) or a fear of loss or suffering (eternal damnation etc)by creating enemies that we feel threatened by. This isn't just external from outside influence, but it is also something that we do to ourselves as well as we each wrestle with our own fears and desires.

"This isn't just external from outside influence, but it is also something that we do to ourselves as well as we each wrestle with our own fears and desires."

Exactly, thanks for tacking ont those points.

If you have read my story of my journey throughout the ex-gay group then it becomes easier to see how and why people can hate themselves to such a point that they either commit suicide or try fruitlessly to change their beings to something they are not.  All out of fear for something that isn't real but simply an aberration used for moral policing.

sorry i meant apparition.

Sorry I meant "Apparition"

Chris, I'm happy to report that not all religions agree on homosexuality.

My church, for instance, has been willing to withstand all kinds of threats and brickbats to defend our belief that the Episcopal Church welcomes absolutely everybody.  It is in keeping with our "three-legged stool" of scripture, tradition and reason.

Those who point to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah as support for their bigotry fail to understand what the sin of the inhabitants of those cities actually was: a lack of hospitality.  Jesus underscores this very point when he compares them to those who would refuse hospitality to his disciples.

And those who point to Levitical law crack me up.  They are generally the same people who villify those they call "religious cherry-pickers" but what are they themselves doing but cherry-picking Levitical law?  Why don't they work as hard to outlaw, say lobster? 

That'd go over real well here in Maine ...

Anyway, my point is that many people of faith see absolutely no conflict between same-sex marriage and "opposite marriage" as Miss CA called it.