To those who favor discrimination (employment, familial, religious, civil/legal, financial, marital, etc.) against gay people:
The bigotry that some heterosexual people feel and demonstrate against gay people is absolutely no different than the historical bigotry many white people have felt and demonstrated against black people, or other ethnic groups.
Ever heard of the Three-Fifths Compromise? It said that black people were not fully human, that they were only three-fifths human. This was a widely held belief.
At one time.
When people were less educated.
In the 1700s.
The late 1700s. But still. The 1700s.
We’ve learned a few things since then. Really. We have.
At another time, people thought the earth was flat.
Then they learned that it was not flat. Before the 1700s.
Surprise.
Truth. Resulting from science and intelligence. Not emotional bigotry.
Returning to the Three-Fifths Compromise, essentially the same charge — “you gay people are not fully human; as you were born, you’re not equal to straight people; you do not deserve to be treated as if you were equal to me who is superior to you because I was born straight and you were born gay, you are worth three-fifths of me” — is being leveled by straight people who say that gay people are “disordered,” or “a biological error,” or any number of other ridiculous things.
Let’s get at least one thing straight: No heterosexual person is better than a homosexual person because he/ she is heterosexual.
Why is this true? Here’s why: What does it take to be a heterosexual? You have to be born. What does it take to be a homosexual? You have to be born.
That takes a lot of effort, doesn’t it? If you were born heterosexual, you really expended a lot of effort unique to you, didn’t you?
One person is not better than another just by being born.
Saying that straight people are better than, or superior to, or deserving of better treatment than gay people is no different than saying that all left-handed people are better than and deserving of more respect, or societal or legal benefits not afforded to right-handed people. Or that people with blue eyes are inherently better and worth more and deserving of more respect or societal or legal benefits than people with green or brown eyes.
If you are heterosexual, did you choose to be heterosexual? Did you ever say to yourself, “I love and am emotionally and physically attracted to members of both sexes, but I choose to be heterosexual. I could just as easily choose to be homosexual, but no, I choose to be heterosexual.”
Be honest.
No, you didn’t.
Same absence of choice for any homosexual. It is no different. No one truly, honestly chooses to be straight or gay. Gay and straight are two sides of the same coin.
I hope there is a special place for the “religious” people who on the one hand say, “God makes no mistakes,” and simultaneously claim gay people to be some sort of mistake. News flash: you cannot have your cake and eat it too. These two “truths” cannot be true at the same time.
One more thing. Please stop comparing gay people to alcoholics. Or prostitutes. Or pederasts. Or murderers. Alcoholics, drug addicts, child molesters (pederasts), prostitutes, and murderers are not like all right-handed people, or all black people. They are people with illnesses, or they are criminals. These categories of comparison have nothing in common with heterosexuals or homosexuals.
To those straight friends of mine who vehemently believe that gay people are less than you, stop.
Really. Stop. There is no legitimate, truly legitimate basis for that rationalization of your bigotry. It is just bigotry.
And it is ugly.
And it makes you ugly.
Don’t be ugly.