GfS, you've made a number of snotty, nasty-minded allegations about me based on something I revealed about my own personal life on the Prop. 8 thread. So, not for your benefit, but to set the record straight for anyone else who might be wondering what the hell you're blathering on about—

A few decades back, along with the civil rights movement, many women began taking charge of their lives rather than having their roles defined by an essentially patriarchal society. Writers such as Gloria Steinam and Germaine Greer were protesting such things as women getting paid about 70% of what men got paid for doing the same work, and generally speaking out for women's rights. Some (including some women) viewed this with alarm. but all-in-all, it was a good thing.

Among other things was the matter of marriage and reproductive rights. There were some women who did want to have children, but didn't want what they regarded as the restrictions of marriage.

Often, a woman would chose a man with intelligence and talent to breed with—someone they felt had "good genes." And that man may not be aware that he is being used primarily—as GfS so quaintly puts it—as a "sperm donor," and entered into the relationship under the assumption that it had some future to it that included him. But her agenda does not include marriage. She's a liberated woman.

So—after a time, it may then come to pass that the woman decides she wants to be married after all, especially to the man who fathered her child. But since a bit of time has passed, the man has moved on. And has married someone else. So she marries someone else. A good man and a good father, who raises the child as if it were his own.

The "sperm donor" stays away—in fact, is asked to stay away—so as not to be an interfering or disrupting factor in the newly formed family. So he bows to the situation, and accedes to the request.

Later, when the child is grown, she decides that he has a right to know who his real father is. So she explains the situation to him. Wanting to meet his real father, he contacts him, and they get together. The son is a bright lad, thoroughly understands the situation, is happy to discover that he has two families, and although the father and the son live in different countries, they manage to get together for an enjoyable few weeks a couple of times a year.

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You see, GfS, the scenario you have built up about me is loaded with selfishness, lust, betrayal, tawdriness, anger, resentment, and general mean-spiritedness, and it springs from a mind reasonably well-suited to writing soap operas.

That says one helluva lot more about you than it does about me.

So—there's an end to it, GfS!! Get your mind out of the gutter.

Don Firth