Senseophobia

Senseophobia – the Unreasonable Fear of Making Sense
Maybe I’m just too close to some issues and fail to understand how ANYONE can come to different conclusions when faced with facts. It’s almost like putting someone’s hand over an open flame, allowing them to suffer third-degree burns and asking the onlookers if they understood why the person suffered the burns, only to hear several different reasons. The fact seems apparent – the burns were caused by holding the person’s hand over intense heat for a prolonged length of time. Would we be a bit shocked to hear different cause-and-effect explanations? Well, such is the case with the Lofton family of Florida. Steven Lofton and Roger Croteau have been partners for over 20 years. The registered-nurse pair met in college where they both prepared for their work in the pediatric AIDS ward of a Florida hospital. After witnessing first-hand the devastation of AIDS in the 80s and the rejection infants suffered during this time, Lofton and Croteau took on the daunting task of being foster parents to six foster children – five of whom still reside with the Loftons today. All the Lofton children were basically toss-aways of society. Lofton recalls how some of the AIDS babies would cry in their cribs and nurses would ignore their wails ignorantly afraid to interact with them. The Loftons have done an amazing job of raising a beautiful and diverse family of five – only one baby succumbed to AIDS-related illness when she was six-years old. For the record, experts predicted the AIDS-infected infants would all be dead before the age of 5. Through bouts of illness, state-wide indifference and societal judgments, the Lofton family always thrived. Now, with two of their children preparing to enter college, the Loftons faced another hurdle. The state of Florida explicitly prohibits adoption by gays. Simply put, the Loftons could keep the castaways in their care while serving as foster parents, but they could never hold the hope of adopting them. One of the Lofton children, Bert, 12, now tests negative for the HIV virus and guess how the state of Florida celebrates this little miracle? The state now suggests that Bert be removed from the Loftons since he is now deemed “adoptable” by a “normal” home. Bert has been with the Loftons since he was 9-weeks old! The self-righteous right-wingers say that ALL children fair better when raised by a two-parent, male-female arrangement, but few in this hypocritical group take on the task of providing foster care or better, come forward to be adoptive parents to the MILLIONS of children who wither-away in orphanages around the country. Various psychiatric and psychological groups have clearly stated that there is NO evidence to show that children fair better in male/female as opposed to male/male or female/female parent families. Moreover, studies have concluded that ONLY the stigma suffered by children of same-sex parents in the form of judgments spewed by outspoken opponents of the arrangement. Gays make loving parents, caring role models and supportive caregivers. Any child would opt for a stable home environment where they are loved and nurtured than the ward of an orphanage facility. As to the argument that gays/lesbians will unfairly sway these children to be gay and/or lesbian, the notion is not only unfounded, it is ridiculous. If this were the case we could say that those of US that were raised by heterosexual, male/female parents would be straight – and by golly, I’m not. It’s a case of sensophobia – folks having the overwhelming fear of situations making sense – even when we disagree with them.

On Blast
What benefit would be served by removing a teenager from a healthy gay family unit to place him/her into a heterosexual family unit when the teen recognizes the gay family unit as his own since infancy?

Keep passin’ the open windows…