Maggie's Farm

Regarding people as sex objects: sexuality is part of every human being. We are geared by God, through whatever method He used, to mate. So the sight of a pretty woman or handsome man will produce some degree of desire. That desire may be fleeting and of course will usually be put aside. We can still treat people with respect, humor and affection without acting on our sexual tingles. And I think we should enjoy our sexual tingles.
This is one reason I think homosexual attraction is inborn. Of course I was told all my life that, as a boy or man, I'm supposed to like girls and women. And that's what happened. But I can't even fathom a sexual attraction to another man. I've occasionally been surprised that a figure I mistook for a woman turned out to be a man when I saw closer, but that's not the same thing. I wasn't really taught not to want other men, I never did want them. I wasn't really taught to want women, I did want them. If that's true for heterosexual attraction, then it seems to me it should be true for homosexual attraction.
I'm sure some people engage in homosexual acts because heterosexual activity isn't available and it seems a usable substitute. I'm just as sure that there are people who are confused about their sexuality and need help -- thus some people who live as gay people find they are really predominantly straight and choose to live that way. We all know of cases the other direction as well -- the husband or wife who leaves the marriage for a gay partner.
Whether attraction is innate or chosen, certainly acting on attraction is a choice. I expect any decent adult to restrain the urge for sex with teens even though the urge is a normal one. So should gay adults restrain their urge for sex? I don't see why. I think they should live as they are. I still think promiscuity is empty and sad, but I think that for all promiscuity.

Speaking of Tea Party values being hippie values: yes, if the hippies meant it. As the last forty years show, they mostly did not mean it.