While I understand your perspective, you are simply ignorant about the dire effect it has on society as a whole.
You're going to lecture
me about ignorance? That's rich!
I've got a newsflash for you, Yiffy: gay and lesbian people have been around for a LONG, LONG time. And guess what? The world hasn't come to a standstill.
What DOES have a dire effect on society as a whole is the kind of ignorance and intolerance espoused by people who think it's ok to:
Lash gay people to fences after beating them bloody, and leaving them to die
Bomb gay bars
Beat up gays in parking lots with baseball bats
Rape lesbians who refuse to have sex with men
Rape gay teens with plunger handles in high school locker rooms
Scrawl things like "God Hates Fags" on gay people's houses, cars, etc.
If there's a detrimental side of homosexuality in American society today, it's because there are people in this country who think it's OK to let their hatred manifest itself in one of the ways I listed above. Those actions, however, are carried out by HATEMONGERS, not homosexuals.
The fact that homosexuals exist in today's society isn't going to make YOU gay. (Is it?) It's not going to turn a bunch of straight people gay. It MIGHT keep some closeted gay people from entering into sham marriages with straight people, thereby keeping them from ruining everyone involved's lives several years down the line once they decide to come out of the closet.
Sometimes I think the basic different between people like you and people like me is that when you see the words gay people, you see:
GAY people. When I see those words, I see gay
PEOPLE. I see homosexuality as a facet of who someone is. In my experience, people like you see that as the ONLY aspect of who that person is.
You say in a later post that you have friends that are gay? Either they're not really gay, they're not really your friends, or they don't really know how you really feel about them.