How Do You Make Your Opinion Heard?

[jackofallgeeks]

I'm not ever overly fond when this subject comes up on LJ. It seems most everyone here disagrees with me - Rachel, Leslie, Beth, Mel, Erin, Claire - it really stings when no one can understand your point of view. It sting more when those 'no one's are your friends and loved ones.

I'm not going to be able to express myself well here, I can garontee it. I'm not going to make a good showing. I believe that the fact no one agrees with me is because I haven't been able to explain myself - I just sound like another 'intollerant' person. One could get philosophic here and divine the nature of 'intollerance'. I won't try.

I don't have a problem with gay people. I have a number of gay friends. They aren't my friends because they're gay, and they aren't my friends in spite of being gay. They're my friends for the same reason anyone is. I admitedly want them to be happy, but I'll also assert that there are certainthings that I don't think anyone should do, even if it's what makes them happy. The ends don't justify the means.

All this having been said, I don't support 'gay rights' as such. Yes, they're people, with just as much worth as me or anyone else. No, they should not be discriminated against by work or society or what have you. But, for the same reasons that I don't believe in Minority Rights or affirmative action (it could be argues gays ARE a minority, after all), I don't think there should be special rules or regulations applied BECAUSE someone's gay. It just sets up another fence to hold people sepperate.

How do you make your opinion heard? The Day Of Silence sounds like a good idea, and was enacted with good intent. But I think it could be said that there are few out there who will listen when one says nothing. I think you should make yourselves heard, get out there and say your thing. Do what it is you feel you have to do to make the world a better place.
I still disagree with you.

One day, I hope you'll understand why.

Comments

[surichan.livejournal.com]

Again, Andrew, I'm sorry you are stung by the fact that no one agrees with you here. It's unfortunate that those you have met and those who are your friends, on a whole, disagree with you about many things. I think perhaps you should go looking at some communities online where you can say whatever you like regarding this issue, without fear of offending us. Try Debate Central debate or Religious Debate religiousdebate, or, perhaps more central to your issue, Debates about Gender, Race, Class, and Sexuality the_genders.

Not to say that I don't want to hear your open and honest opinion. But the thing is, Andrew, it stings me too, that one of my closest friends feels the exact opposite of the way I do. I know it has to be worse for you, being that most of my friends agree with me and none of yours seem to, but understand that I value your opinion very highly. Don't put the gay rights movement in the same class as Affirmative Action. Gays aren't looking (as far as I know) for more rights than the rest of us - just the same rights: marriage, freedom to have a family, no discrimination. Gays, more than any other minority I can think of, honestly want pure equality. I'm sure there are exceptions to that, but look: the Affirmative Action-wielding professional victims want to have a better chance of getting a job than the white males of the world. Feminists, on a whole, tend to want men to be lesser beings than they. But homosexuals? No, they just want the freedom to go to a safe workplace or school where they won't be harmed or disparaged, come home to their accepting family and/or partner and perhaps children, eat dinner, and go to bed. Just like anybody else.

And - please don't take this the wrong way - one day I hope you'll understand why we disagree with you. Until then, we are at an impass, and I am sorry for that.

Taken Line By Line

[jackofallgeeks.livejournal.com]

First, I would like to thank you for the links to those other communities - I hope to check them out, see what people are saying, maybe figure out how to say what it is I want to convey to you. Second, and I don't mean to be offensive by this but, this IS my journal, and I WILL write what I feel in it. It's a shame if anyone is offended by it, for that's not my intent, and I would honestly like to be confronted if for some reason I have offended someone. But you need never fear that i won't share my honest opinion.

The second, I think, is a real pitty, because I don't think that what I believe is the antithesis of what you hold to be true. I DON'T feel you and I are on 'exact opposite' sides of the battlefield. However, the mere fact that you (and I'm sure others) believe that to be my position goes a long way to prove how inept at expressing myself I am. I have nothing against gays, about them wanting to be respected as people, and lead happy lives. I can'i imagine WHY anyone WOULD be against that.
I do stand against gay marriges, but that is a religious issue - marrige as such should be between a man and a woman. If you want to legaly declare them parters, fine. You want to give them the dame tax benefits as oither couples, go ahead. I'm not even wholy against gay couples adopting, because I have yet to find solid evidence that there can be anything wrong there. Due to my religious beliefs, I'm more inclined towards the nuclear modle of a family, granted...
I do not think, though, that other minorities are seeking more 'freedoms' than anyone else (though, really, how can there be more freedoms?). I do believe that any set of rules or laws that distinguishes one person from another is inherently flawed, because it's opened to abuse and generally splits the populace. I don't think Affirmative Actions asks anything more than equal opportunity, but it carries it out in the wrong way. I don't think feminists, in general, ask for anything more than equality. But in both cases, people are being divided and rules are being abused.

You're right in that I don't understand how or why or in what way you hold the possitions you hold. That's not to say it's a futile attempt to try and reconcile our views, it just means that I've been unable to express myself in a way that would aide you in expressing yourselves. I also don't know what an impass is. In either case, the only way to find out is to not let our differences of opinion or frustration at our lack of understanding drive us apart.

Re: Taken Line By Line

[surichan.livejournal.com]

Precisely why I still love you and am your friend forever. We disagree, but we are more alike than not, I think.