So gay marriage is now legal in the US...
...and I have seen two kinds of reactions:
1. People turning their Facebook profile pictures in rainbow colours
2. People dissing the whole situation with arguments like "next stop we'll be marrying animals", "it's not normal", "marriage is for religion", "marriage is for reproduction", bla bla bla
I fall under neither of the above two categories.
As a start-up point of my beliefs on gay rights, you can read my post on categorizing people.
I feel the need to expand on that with the recent explosion of social network statuses on the subject. So here we go:
1. Before we go any further, I would like to establish that gay people are people. That means that they have the same rights as all the others (no more, but no less), same right to be upset as anyone would be when someone posts a public post saying that they are "anomalies" and so on. If you are wondering why some gay people make such a fuss about this, it's because it's a reaction to so many people who have no problem to publicly state that that gay people are "not normal" and so on.
As an example, think of certain characteristics you have that you can't control. Let's not start with something as debated as the race thing, let's focus on something simpler, like, let's say, being left handed. Did you know that left handed people have been persecuted throughout times?
To quote Wikipedia: "left-handed people have frequently been subjected to deliberate discrimination and disparagement. In many societies, they are considered unlucky or even malicious by the right-handed majority. Many languages use references to left-handedness to convey awkwardness, dishonesty, stupidity, or other undesirable qualities. Even in relatively modern societies, left-handed people historically have been—and in some places still are—forced from childhood to use their right hands for tasks which they would naturally perform with the left, such as eating and writing"
So let's say you are left handed and there's a shitload of people giving public statements stating that left-handed people are stupid and that they should be forced to use their right hand like every normal person. Let's say there were laws that said that writing with your left hand was illegal.
Put yourself in the shoes of a person who is constantly treated like that, acknowledge that there is absolutely nothing you can do about the fact that you are left handed and start wondering how you would react.
2. The fact that you don't have the same tastes as another person does not mean you have to create laws that forbid them from being what they are. My freedom ends where your freedom starts, the saying goes. We all do things in our bedrooms we don't want to discuss publicly (and who isn't doing such things is probably not doing any things). What we do is our business and the business of whoever is joining us. As long as everyone's in agreement that all is good, all is good. And, no, before you jump at the children and animals in the bedroom subject (as some people I have debated the subject with on Facebook have), children and animals are not in a position to truly agree to what is happening which is why it is not OK. But homosexual sex is between two consenting adults who are both in agreement that they want to go through with it. (if one is not in agreement, this falls under the scope of rape which is equally not OK in the heterosexual sex either).
Why do we continue to make such a big deal on the fact that some people simply have different tastes than us? Why is that any of our business?
I personally do not find it beautiful when a woman tattoos her body from head to toes. Does that really give me the right to request a law where she is forbidden to do that? How is that any different than issuing a law requesting her to only have sex with men?
3. Marriage is not about religion. If it were, there would be a law forbidding atheists from marrying. There isn't. Nobody ever lobbied for one. End of story. Deal with it.
4. Marriage is not about having children. If it were, there would be a law forbidding elders and infertile people from marrying. Nobody ever lobbied for one. End of story. Deal with it.
Feel free to throw stones if you have actual real arguments behind them.
1. People turning their Facebook profile pictures in rainbow colours
2. People dissing the whole situation with arguments like "next stop we'll be marrying animals", "it's not normal", "marriage is for religion", "marriage is for reproduction", bla bla bla
I fall under neither of the above two categories.
As a start-up point of my beliefs on gay rights, you can read my post on categorizing people.
I feel the need to expand on that with the recent explosion of social network statuses on the subject. So here we go:
1. Before we go any further, I would like to establish that gay people are people. That means that they have the same rights as all the others (no more, but no less), same right to be upset as anyone would be when someone posts a public post saying that they are "anomalies" and so on. If you are wondering why some gay people make such a fuss about this, it's because it's a reaction to so many people who have no problem to publicly state that that gay people are "not normal" and so on.
As an example, think of certain characteristics you have that you can't control. Let's not start with something as debated as the race thing, let's focus on something simpler, like, let's say, being left handed. Did you know that left handed people have been persecuted throughout times?
To quote Wikipedia: "left-handed people have frequently been subjected to deliberate discrimination and disparagement. In many societies, they are considered unlucky or even malicious by the right-handed majority. Many languages use references to left-handedness to convey awkwardness, dishonesty, stupidity, or other undesirable qualities. Even in relatively modern societies, left-handed people historically have been—and in some places still are—forced from childhood to use their right hands for tasks which they would naturally perform with the left, such as eating and writing"
So let's say you are left handed and there's a shitload of people giving public statements stating that left-handed people are stupid and that they should be forced to use their right hand like every normal person. Let's say there were laws that said that writing with your left hand was illegal.
Put yourself in the shoes of a person who is constantly treated like that, acknowledge that there is absolutely nothing you can do about the fact that you are left handed and start wondering how you would react.
2. The fact that you don't have the same tastes as another person does not mean you have to create laws that forbid them from being what they are. My freedom ends where your freedom starts, the saying goes. We all do things in our bedrooms we don't want to discuss publicly (and who isn't doing such things is probably not doing any things). What we do is our business and the business of whoever is joining us. As long as everyone's in agreement that all is good, all is good. And, no, before you jump at the children and animals in the bedroom subject (as some people I have debated the subject with on Facebook have), children and animals are not in a position to truly agree to what is happening which is why it is not OK. But homosexual sex is between two consenting adults who are both in agreement that they want to go through with it. (if one is not in agreement, this falls under the scope of rape which is equally not OK in the heterosexual sex either).
Why do we continue to make such a big deal on the fact that some people simply have different tastes than us? Why is that any of our business?
I personally do not find it beautiful when a woman tattoos her body from head to toes. Does that really give me the right to request a law where she is forbidden to do that? How is that any different than issuing a law requesting her to only have sex with men?
3. Marriage is not about religion. If it were, there would be a law forbidding atheists from marrying. There isn't. Nobody ever lobbied for one. End of story. Deal with it.
4. Marriage is not about having children. If it were, there would be a law forbidding elders and infertile people from marrying. Nobody ever lobbied for one. End of story. Deal with it.
Feel free to throw stones if you have actual real arguments behind them.
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