Why is it that the Democrats think people need help doing self-destructive things?
If you ask government to give you money so you don't have to work, it will gladly do so. If you ask it to leave you alone so you can build a legitimate business without endless lines of red tape, regulations, and fees, it will hold a proverbial gun to your head and tell you to jump hurdles and pay up. Failure to do so will eventually cause someone with a real gun to show up to take you away.
The odd thing about Democrat-led governments is that they're more than happy to assist you in anything you want so long as the thing you want is ultimately self-destructive. San Francisco is a really great example of this. They will provide you with the needles to inject your drug of choice with, make it legal to transmit STDs to a sexual partner without consent, and go so soft on crime that if you destroy and loot a store, they'll pat you on the head and call you a victim.
I was reading my colleague Rusty Weiss's recent article about New York's desire to bring back a part of "gay culture" that resulted in the sickness and death of many: the gay bathhouse:
State Assemblymember Tony Simone (NY-75) has described the venues as “part of gay culture” and argued they should be brought “out of the shadows.” He and State Senator Erik Bottcher contend that regulated bathhouses would be safer than the underground spots that already operate.
“Queer New Yorkers are being forced into the shadows … we all know these places exist,” added Simone.
“Actions taken at the height of the AIDS crisis are out of step with modern reality. The science has changed. Prevention has changed. Treatment has changed. It’s time for our laws to change too," Bottcher contends.
LGBT activist Allen Roskoff offered support for the plan, noting these bathhouses did not just provide a place for strangers to have sex in public.
“They were symbols of our community, our culture, and our fight for civil rights and sexual liberation. I spent much of my youth in them,” Roskoff said.
A few things right off the bat. They admit these gay sex meeting places already exist, so why does the state feel like it needs to help them exist more?
Secondly, the data shows that these gay sex locations were vectors for disease then, and that these unofficial hookup spots are vectors for disease now. Do they think that putting the government stamp of approval on that will somehow curb the spread? Did San Francisco's homeless, drug-addicted populace shrink when they started handing out the needles?
"Oh, we'll just put rules and regulations on these bathhouses when it comes to sex."
Yeah, I'm sure they'll be followed to the letter and nothing bad will ever happen while bodily fluids are being swapped in various ways.
Also, "gay culture" is an odd thing to want to support, because as they themselves have made clear, "gay culture" is really just a fetish-based sex culture. Why does the state feel the need to involve itself in fetishistic sex in the first place? Why does it feel the need to take something that should stay behind closed doors between two consenting adults and thrust it into the light?
The complaint is that it keeps gay people in the shadows. I've got news for him. Straight people keep their fetishes in the shadows too. It's where they belong, because sex is a private act that has no business being public in any way. If "gay culture" is making sexual acts public to feel empowered and "equal" (we know the LGBTQ+ activist community thinks it does because of the existence and activities during Pride parades), then we should be doing everything as a civilization to make sure they're told they're wrong and pushed back behind closed doors.
The thing is, if straight people were trying to promote sex with each other, they would shut that down immediately. It could lead to children, after all, and we all know how much Democrats hate those.
But we know that the government would shut it down because it rightly and actively does when it comes in the form of prostitution. Why?
Because prostitution comes with some real issues: It, too, is a vector for disease, and can often result in abuse, murder, enslavement, and — probably the most horrible of all — you can't reliably tax it. Hilariously, the government seems not to care that opening up public bathhouses for gay sex wouldn't result in gay prostitution.
Straight prostitution is evil and needs to be shut down.
Gay prostitution, though? Empowering and inclusive.
Gay AIDS is fine. Straight AIDS or other STDs are clearly evil.
It's pretty clear that this is a virtue signal from Democrats to shore up their gay vote, but the problem is that New York Democrats have the power to follow up on their virtue signals, and when given that power, the place Democrats oversee becomes a hellscape. Before you think "Fine, let it be a hellscape," I'd like to remind you this is New York.
Whatever diseases it resurrects and allows to run rampant will eventually make their way to other parts of this country. Disease, immorality, and all the destruction that comes with it do not like staying contained. It wants to spread. It needs to spread.
At some point, you will be dealing with the fallout in some shape or form.
