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.