| nightsurge said: You do realize I said "to me" it just isn't right. Way to try and take what I said out of context to make me look evil. I'm saying to me the idea of being gay isn't something I'd ever consider, nor do I feel it a natural thing to occur. That doesn't mean I hate gay people or what they do, as I have some gay friends. I don't let my opinion on the matter reflect my treatment of others. We were created with parts meant to reproduce with the opposite gender. Humans cannot reproduce with same gender. Thus attempting to reproduce with the same gender is not "natural." And I'm sure you'll take that to mean something aweful, but it's just a personal statement and view of mine, which again, has no reflection on how I treat individuals who are gay. I treat everyone with equal respect regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. I am not asking to limit their rights. They can have equal rights in anything they want. All I am saying is that I personally never have to accept it or like it. And for the record, not all opinions are equally valid or civil or significative. If that were so, Hitler's opinion of Jews being an inferior people would have be accepted and tolerated just as any other. |
I sincerely was not trying to take some of your words out of context, it's just that I couldn't understand how the context changes their meaning at all.
Let's leave aside what you consider or not consider natural, because that's frankly not the point. You say that it has no reflection on how you treat gay people, and that's great. But then again you say
"They can have equal rights in anything they want. All I am saying is that I personally never have to accept it or like it."
Which puzzles me, but maybe it's your choice of words.
In an ideal world I'd ask what is there to like or dislike in something in which you're not involved, since you're not gay, and that doesn't harm anybody. But I don't want to be that naive, and I understand that we have gut reactions depending on how we grew up. Exactly as old people may not like seeing a boy and a girl making out in the back rows of a bus, I understand that you might not like the sight of two men or women doing the same. I suppose that the rough response would be "too bad, that's your problem" :)
But acceptance is very different, and not accepting something means actively taking actions so that it doesn't happen or repeat. And I understand that it's not your case. Same with your "it's wrong" sentence. It's obvious that you meant "to me", but saying that you don't endorse gay marriage seems to be in conflict with your saying that you are for equal rights. After all the right to marry is a right that they are currently denied in most states.
PS: regarding your last paragraph, there must have been a misunderstanding. I do agree with you: I'm all for freedom of expression, but (obviously?) not for automatically considering all opinions on equal standing. In my case it's endorsement of legal discrimination of gay people that I can't treat on the same plane of "I think we should boycott this writer". The former aims to arbitrarily limit personal rights, the latter might be off-mark but is a totally legit consumer choice.
