Yes, Akenaton, I would like to see respectful language used. But I'm not a mudcat moderator and am not prepared to be a 'disrespectful language' police person.   I queried as to whether getting rid of name calling was something mudcatters wanted to work on......and didn't get anything even approaching a consensus. Which is fine!

So my way of reinforcing the respectful boundaries would be to first of all look at my own posts....and my own reactions, and decide how I can ensure they are respectul.

Secondly, I want to reinforce individuals and statements that I feel are respectful. I've done that a few times in this thread.

I don't think that discussion of 'homosexual health' is necessarily disrespectful. But I can respect the feedback that some people are giving about the implications of what you are saying. And I stated what I believed would be better ways of promoting such health.... which you (respectfully) disagreed with.

I think, though, it's hard to be respectful when your goal is to argue a position and show that you are 'right'. And I think that's a common problem. Amidst the over-reaction by some have been some excellent points about why your thesis would not be a desirable thing within society.   And I think that truly listening to those points of view, asking questions (to understand them better rather than to convince them that they are wrong) would probably do a lot to enhance respect.

And yes......I would say the same thing to those on the other side of the debate, some of whom are reacting to the frustration of not being 'heard', and others who probably just like to spew out insults.