(I originally posted this on Google+, but since most of you probably don’t follow me there, I figured you’d like to read this. No, I don’t cross post everything. That would be annoying…)
To this day, I still find statements (or logic) such as the following ironically amusing: “I love you, but homosexuality is a sin.” It’s similar to “I don’t support discrimination against LGBT (QUILTBAG) people, but I don’t support same-sex marriage.”
Such statements point to a failure to understand the other side. To LGBT (QUILTBAG) people, the various issues they are campaigning for, which extend from the right to marry to the various protections afforded to almost everyone else (job protection, protection against abuse, discrimination, violence, etc. etc. etc.), are all Civil Rights. In other words, regardless of what one might think about these people and their “agenda,” they believe to the core of their being that this is a Civil Rights movement.
Within that context, can you really blame them for seeing bigots everywhere? From the mindset ofCivil Rights, any contradictory statement like one of the two I listed above would present a bigoted position: that is that saying “I don’t support same-sex marriage because I believe it is a sin” is an dogmatic position, the adherence to which links one to bigotry within the context of a Civil Rightsdiscussion.
The fact that LGBT (QUILTBAG) people are right — it is a Civil Rights movement — is secondary to understanding why they are so adamant about their beliefs. Some like to say that these folks are just as intolerant as the people they claim to be against, which is little more than linguistic trickery to support a victim mentality. The reality is that almost all (notice the qualification) LGBT (QUILTBAG) people do not believe they have a right to control what you do and do not believe, just that you don’t have a right to impose those beliefs on them by denying them the rights and privileges heterosexuals take for granted on a daily basis. At the end of the day, LGBT (QUILTBAG) people aren’t trying to take something away from their opponents. Their opponents, however, are — that’s where bigotry finds a home.
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Misunderstanding the LGBT (QUILTBAG) “Agenda” — Or Why It’s Not “Bigoted”
(I originally posted this on Google+, but since most of you probably don’t follow me there, I figured you’d like to read this. No, I don’t cross post everything. That would be annoying…)
To this day, I still find statements (or logic) such as the following ironically amusing: “I love you, but homosexuality is a sin.” It’s similar to “I don’t support discrimination against LGBT (QUILTBAG) people, but I don’t support same-sex marriage.”
Such statements point to a failure to understand the other side. To LGBT (QUILTBAG) people, the various issues they are campaigning for, which extend from the right to marry to the various protections afforded to almost everyone else (job protection, protection against abuse, discrimination, violence, etc. etc. etc.), are all Civil Rights. In other words, regardless of what one might think about these people and their “agenda,” they believe to the core of their being that this is a Civil Rights movement.
Within that context, can you really blame them for seeing bigots everywhere? From the mindset ofCivil Rights, any contradictory statement like one of the two I listed above would present a bigoted position: that is that saying “I don’t support same-sex marriage because I believe it is a sin” is an dogmatic position, the adherence to which links one to bigotry within the context of a Civil Rightsdiscussion.
The fact that LGBT (QUILTBAG) people are right — it is a Civil Rights movement — is secondary to understanding why they are so adamant about their beliefs. Some like to say that these folks are just as intolerant as the people they claim to be against, which is little more than linguistic trickery to support a victim mentality. The reality is that almost all (notice the qualification) LGBT (QUILTBAG) people do not believe they have a right to control what you do and do not believe, just that you don’t have a right to impose those beliefs on them by denying them the rights and privileges heterosexuals take for granted on a daily basis. At the end of the day, LGBT (QUILTBAG) people aren’t trying to take something away from their opponents. Their opponents, however, are — that’s where bigotry finds a home.
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