I’m gay.
I’d suspect quite a few others reading this are as well.
There’s certainly no “class” I took, or “rule book” I was given, to “train” me to be gay. I was not abused in any way when I was younger, it was completely natural, I just always preferred another man as opposed to a woman.
Have those who are sickened by two men kissing each other in public, or holding one another’s hand, ever considered how your heterosexual “flamboyance” might be perceived? All I see, everywhere, are heterosexuals flaunting their “straightness” it’s gets to be rather old after awhile.
My point with that above… before you start spouting off about those damn “fags” … why don’t you consider how YOUR BEHAVIOUR appears first?
I’m not going to throw a fit when I see some overt display of heterosexuality in public, so you best not spaz out if you happen to see me kissing my boyfriend at the museum, etc. Again, I have to deal with heterosexuals fawning upon one another, you’ll have to deal with men who would decide to show affection. I don’t support the double standard in which heterosexuals can do whatever they’d like together in public, but I’m supposed to “keep it at home” - that’s silly.
You cannot use the extremes of any society to judge that society.
Gay pride parades, in my opinion are disgusting; and I’d never find myself attending one. Those people are very atypical of your average gay or lesbian. They have every right, living in the United States, to do what they want to do. If you don’t like it, as I don’t, you just have to deal with it.
Oh, and I so wish I’d be making money for how many times the word “lifestyle” has been used here. Being gay isn’t a “lifestyle”. I can see people ignorantly confusing the “club lifestyle” that a small percentage of gay people partipate in, and viewing that as how everyone behaves. This is simply not true.
You want to know what lifestyle I have? The office guy, telecomuting, what have you, you know, typical grey collar sort of person. There’s nothing at all there that is different from probably a vast majority of others here. You want to know that ONE difference? At the end of the day, my loved one is a guy. WHOOOPIE! Deal with it…
Those who scream about “special rights” are sadly uninformed. It’s all about being afforded the same rights under the law that any heterosexual man would be given. I don’t want any special treatment. I want to be able to have a legally binding commitment, just as heterosexuals would. I want to be able to have the legal right to plan my loved ones funeral if need be (obviously this would be very far into the future), the legal right to make medical decisions as heterosexuals would have….
Imagine, you love someone greatly, and there’s an auto accident. The hospital REFUSES to allow you to see your loved one, because “legally” you are not family. You see, without the genders and the sexuality involved, it’s an awful situation.
I want to be able to extend my health insurance to my “spouse” just as a heterosexual man would be able to do with his wife.
And, sure, I’d like to have the tax relief that married individuals have too.
There’s nothing at all special there. It’s just receiving the SAME rights that heterosexuals have.
And if I could take a pill to magically make me straight, would I take it?
No.
If I was given a choice at birth, or before puberty, whatever, I would have chosen to be heterosexual; provided I would be aware of just how many people HATE me JUST because of who I choose to love.
I’m who I am because of all the bullshit bigotted straight people have put me through. I’m proud of myself for making it this long. I’m proud of who I have become too.
The rate of suicide is so very much higher amongst gay youth, and that’s because their parents, friends, and society in general make them feel so very awful about themselves, they simply cannot bare to live any longer.
You can tout various religious things, bandy about morality, it doesn’t much matter really. If someone is gay, they just ARE. They didn’t do anything special, make any choices, they just are that way.
There are disgusting gay people, there are disgusting straight people. Only problem is, heterosexuals often can’t tell the difference between your average gay person and average straight person. It’s only the ones out on the extremes do you notice. You want to know something else? Us, “average” gay guys don’t really appreciate those fringe elements either. They bring exactly the kind of bigotry that has been shown here.
I was kind of hoping that someone else here that is gay would have posted… if they did make reference to it I’ve certainly missed the post.
And about bigotry. It is okay to be a bigot. It’s not okay to use that bigotry to interfere in anyone’s life. For those here that have been accused of being bigots… You are, just accept it, I won’t hate you anymore than I already do; in fact, if you accept that, I can at least respect you.
I really hope I’ve covered all of the points that I have set out to cover. The basic thing is, you know far more gay people than you think, you probably just don’t know they’re gay. The majority of us are JUST LIKE YOU, we just choose to love someone of our own gender. I agree not to be revolted when I see heterosexuals flaunting their straightness, can you agree to leave us alone?
May 31st, 2002 at 8:19 am
You should be afforded the same basic rights as a heterosexual person. Not recognizing someone as a complete person, and subsequently denying them rights to things like healthcare coverage, because of their sexuality is just as criminal as denying them because of the color of their skin. The truth is, my friend, that modern society isn’t really that modern at all. There is still an ages old stigma attached to homosexuality that seems to perpetuate itself from one generation to the next. That stigma is the catalyst that allows it to still be socially acceptable to deny people the right to live the way they wish. The only thing I have to offer is this: Just know that not everyone will always banish you to the back of the bus.
May 31st, 2002 at 6:13 pm
Well, Indi, I think you know how I feel about all this. I don’t consider homosexuality to be a good thing, but there’s a hell of a lot of stuff that I don’t consider to be “good”–and a lot of it is shit that I do!
I’m all for legal provisions for homosexual couples. I fail to see what reason the state would have against it. I don’t want my church performing those ceremonies, but that’s a private affair entirely.
Some probably would say that my choice to be a minister would lead me to want to despise you for being unrepentant. Nah. The Bible says that everyone has sinned and fallen short of the glory of the Lord. If I’m going to not love people because they sinned, well, I ain’t a-lovin’ no one as my brother then.
-hug- If I come to PGH sometime, we’re so hanging out.
June 6th, 2002 at 4:08 pm
Yeah, I’ve found that most people have a hard time comprehending a few really important ideas. The first and most important is that Equality, means ture equality extended to everyone.
People are willing to say “I don’t fit into catagroy XYZ (terrorist, gay/lesbian, female, arab, etc.) so its ok if you lynch them, or opress them” On the other hand when their groups’ rights are encroched upon, they start hankering for equality. Sorry, it doesn’t work that way. Every one should be given due process of law, everyone should be allowed to run for political office, everyone one should be able to love (and have that relationship recognized by the state) who ever they want. The truth is that none of these equalities exist. Noncitizens aren’t given fair trials, there are laws that make it hard–if not impossible–for minority parties to get canidates on the ballet, and its clear that gay/lesbian equality is pitiful. They (a lot of non-me people) say they work in the name of equality, but thats a lie. When working for equality it would be self defeating and foolish to only seek eqality for one demographic group; you may be better off for a little while, but the underlying problem isn’t solved, and it’ll creap up behind you for another reason latter. Equality is equality, there isn’t really a middle ground.
A second idea that a lot of people don’t seem to understand is choice. Freedom of choice means that everyone gets to make choices about their actions, their belifs, and their thoughts. People diserve to be given options concerning their medical care and treatment (and they get to chose doctors). We are given a choice to waive rights to a jury, and a unanomous virdict. Everyone should get to chose who they love and have avilable to them protection and support under the law.
It’s angering that people will support equal access to due process, but when you say that imagrants or terrorists should be given fair trials, people react quite differently. The same thing goes for gay/lesbian equality. People support equality untill someone suggests something that conflicts with an arcane view of how the world *should* be, then it’s *wrong*. That’s wrong. Equality is equality. Choice is similar. People are cool with freedom of choice untill in conficts with a Victorian ethic or moral, and then those people should be allowed that choice. Again rubbish. Everyone has the freedom to chose unless it somehow interupts somone elses freedom to chose.
The saddest thing is that it’ll take a mass movement of people who can realize that everyone’s choice and equality is at stake. Such a movement would have to include lots and lots of people fighting for an ideal and a paradigm. Sadly, a lot of people don’t see this. Sadly, a lot of people are only concerned with their choice and expansion of their rights. Sadly, it seems that things are to far gone for this to be an easy fight.
Never stop.