Dear bigots/homophobes/ scourge of humanity
So I saw the following "Proudly homophobic " on Facebook and it really got me upset.
My views on homosexuality, bisexuality and heterosexuality all boil down to one thing: If you love someone and they love you, it is NONE of anyone else's business what your orientation is. Love is this profound emotion that surpasses all other forms of feeling. It's insane and then at the same time so calming. It's the stuff of legends that fills books and poems and music. Gay, straight, diagonal, whatever - love can take root anywhere and we have no place to judge this sacrosanct connection between two people.
So what baffles me is when people get on this moral high ground about homosexuals "ruining society" and how there is a problem with someone having a different sexual orientation to them. To aptly explain how I see them, here is an anecdote:
There's this man who I see everyday on the way home, he stands on the side of the road and just shouts hate and resentment to passersby. He swears and spits and raves for a few hours every afternoon, on the side of an intersection. I feel immense pity for him and the amount of hate he carries within him. I also am saddened that he goes out of his way to spread his animosity to society.
Those people who rave about how dangerous homosexuality is, you guys are that man on the side of the road: everyone else is moving forward and making progress and you continue to spit and spread hate.
These are my top 3 justifications/flimsy excuses/ bigot backups for being anti- homosexual, bisexuals and basically anything or anyone outside to the small spectrum of "normality":
1) "Its corrupting society"
It must be chilly and windy up on your moral high ground. Also warped. Honestly- humankind is characterised by our tendency to be corrupted by money, greed, power, anything really. If someone could remind me of the time in history when the gay people overthrew society and spread havoc then it would be highly helpful. You know "Hide yo kids, hide yo wife " chaos? Obviously History 120 doesn't cover that revolution because I was totally unaware of the continuing threat to society by people of a different sexual orientation. I should probably ask the department of Education about is lax attitude with regard to my education!
If you ask a homophobic person what they mean when they say that, they really have no answer that can be backed up. They mumble about how it's "just wrong". My stance on what has "corrupted society" is that there is an acceptance of violence and the sexualised notion of women in music and television. Because society would rather accept that the growing porn industry is "okay" even though it contributes to the sexual exploitation of thousands of young women who have been trafficked, drugged and abused to make many those films. The defence of the "legitimate" porn industry is one I don't care for. Why? Because the dark underbelly is always a larger beast than the pristine surface that is regulated.
The rise of this sexualised portrayal of women has contributed to the cycle of violence and sexual crime. Criminologists actually acknowledge porn as a factor in the rise of sexual violence. But you're gonna tell me that a man holding hands with another man in Woolworths is a bigger issue? Wow.
2) "It's against God."
Please. Don't.
The golden thread of most major religions is one of acceptance, love and spreading kindness to your fellow man. Do not quote verses to justify your bigotry. Don't do what people who promoted the slave trade did. And the same sort of people who manipulated that message to make it okay to burn women at the stake in Salem. And if you're going to take things so literally then banish all women during their periods for being unclean.
You use religion to make you feel better about hating and hurting others? And you wonder why people have such a harsh idea of theists. I believe in God and what I understand about Him and His Son is that we must love others and accept others for what they are and who they are. The church gets a terrible reputation for being so judgemental about people who don't fit the norm, people forget that when the Christian church started- they were the outsiders of society who were not part of the norm. They were the ones who were hurt and attacked for being different.
So please- stop that excuse. Stop putting people into boxes and acting holier than the rest of us. When has hatred ever been holy? When has rejection ever been seen as a positive thing?
Never.
3) "It's just not natural"
I'm going to direct you to the male penguin couple that raised an orphan baby and many other instances of homosexuality in the animal kingdom. If you want to talk about what's not natural I have a list of things humans do that isn't "natural".
- Remove bodily hair that's meant to protect our orifices
- Jumping off high places with nothing but a rope separating us from death
- The cabbage soup diet
- Homophobia- this is my favourite unnatural thing because it is a learnt behaviour. It's taught and shouldn't exist naturally
Yesterday I saw a girl give her girlfriend the last sip of her lemonade in the boiling heat outside the train station. It was such a selfless gesture but people around them looked uncomfortable. If it was a boy and a girl, it would still be a selfless gesture but people would say "Aww".
One of my closest friends is gay and if I am free to love someone openly- he should be able to as well. To love without fear of being mocked and insulted by narrow minded people. I have tears every time I hear Same Love because I believe so fiercely in that principle of acceptance. My friend is still my friend if she chooses to like girls or boys or both.
Who we choose to love is no one else's business. Are we so scared of things that are different to our idea of "normal" that we cannot let people who are different to us be happy? Love is so damn confusing as it is, how dare we try to set limits on what it can and can't be?
How dare you?
Yours sincerely.
