Earlier today I read a blog post wherein a woman expresses her disdain for homosexuals in public:
"I find myself unable to even leave the house anymore without worrying about what in tarnation we are going to encounter. We are responsible citizens. We live by the rules, we pay our taxes, we take care of our things. I'm supposed to be able to influence what goes on in my community, and as a voter I do exercise that right. But I'm outnumbered. I can't even go to normal places without having to sit silently and tolerate immorality. We all know what would happen if I asked two men or two women to stop displaying, right in front of me and my children, that they live in sodomy"
What Stacy fails to realize, however, is that as much as it is her community, it is also THEIR community. That's right, gay people pay taxes. They live by the rules. They take care of their things, their children, and they exercise their right to vote. And by doing so, they have equal claim to all public parks, community centers, etc.
What disturbs me about the world now is not the rampant behavior of the immoral homosexuals. It is the hatred and disdain expressed in response to them. If America is, as you claim, being forced to accept immorality, then I would like to stand up and speak out against it: starting with people like YOU. Perhaps I do not want my children exposed to bigotry and hatred. Perhaps I do not want to leave my house and see anti-gay slurs spray painted on walls, or listen to people in my husband's unit denounce all the "faggots".
We are similar, you and I. We want to raise our children in a moral society. But while you are more concerned with explaining to your daughers why 2 women might have a baby, I am more concerned with explaining to mine why people can be so hateful.
Gay people will always be welcome in "my" community. Always.
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Gays at the park!
Posted by Laura at 7:21 PM
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5 comments:
I read through the comments (agreeing with most of the commenters) and then read through some more of her entries as well as Leila's. And then I had to stop reading all of it, because my head had steam blowing out of it because I can't understand how some people can be so blinded but intolerance and ignorance. Thankfully our country as well as society as a whole continues to progress, and that more and more people discontinued to be held down by and controlled by dogmas and fundamentalist agendas. Still surprises me how ugly people are inside though.
How terrible! People can be so mean! I just LOVE your blog! :) I am a follower! :) Erin
www.healthybranscoms.com
Well, she has a right to express her opinion just like you have a right to express yours. That is part of this free society, too. If hers happens to be intolerant towards people with differing morality than hers, so be it. That doesn't bother me any more than anything else. There are people with all sorts of goofy ideas out there who would love to force them upon all of us via the power of government. Luckily, we live in a representative republic where fringe ideals rarely rule the day and we have a constant opportunity to re-address the rules we live by.
Intolerance is a 2-way street. She didn't harass them, so there was no harm done. She stayed within the confines of the law by expressing her views legally. So did you. But you were just as intolerant of her morality as she was of a more progressive variety you happen to agree with.
If we are truly certain that our ideology is correct, we should welcome a fair, open, and unrestrained competition in the arena of ideals with anyone. And we should be able to do so without vitriol, name-calling, or inflammatory language based on assumptions about motives, character, etc. Whenever I read or hear people arguing their points in ways that are not so well grounded and deeply-convicted I have to question the intellectual and emotional maturity of the speaker, which puts their credibility in question. Such rhetoric can make for wonderful humor, but it is hard to take seriously.
Who's name calling here?
That's all you got out of that? Really?
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