Have you ever thought about this aspect of the issue?

Question

I have suffered severe chriticism for having an anti-gay opinion. Every person who speaks against gay persons, receives chastizement for being a bigot. They are labeled as having a closed mind, and are considered to be prejudiced. Yet, if a person speaks FOR gay persons, they are considered to be a great person and 'up with the times'. If (as an american) I am to be accepting of those different from me, then why aren't they accepting of me. I'm not trying to convert them to christianity. I'm not trying to do anything but state an opinion. One of our founders said "I may not agree with a thing you say, but I will fight to the death for your right to say it." That mindset has disapperared. I have a lot of issues with a lot of things, but as an american I am entitled to say whatever I want. As long as I'm not attacking you, then don't attack me. Grow tougher skin, the world will not always be accepting. If you chose a differing path, then understand my adversion to it.

Answer 1

It wasn't one of our founders, my Dearest, but it was quite a learned man. It was Voltaire and I agree with you. You do have a right to your opinion and I will fight to the death for your right to say it. You may be entitled to say what you want but it would behoove you to be kinder to those around you to watch what you do say. You DON"T have the right to purposely go out and hurt someone's feelings. That's as much being a bully as if you'd gone up to them and slapped them and you know it.
Grow a thicker skin? Learn some manners. A young woman like yourself should be able to comport herself with not only dignity in stature but in speech. Get some manners, my girl.

The full quote is "I may not agree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
Remember, you only get one shot at a first impression.

Answer 2

The thought police have decided that not only is homosexuality normal, homosexuals are now the latest victims of evil conservative, bible thumping bigots.

I don't accept that. One earlier career I had involved managing a bar that had many openly gay customers. I got to know a lot of them. Some were good people some were not. What I found remarkable is how many were self destructive. This was before Aids and right around the time that Herpies was first appearing.

Out of aprox. 60 homosexual males I knew only two had stable relationships. These also were the only ones that were what you would call "passable". They seemed heterosexual in every way. They each had a boyfriend and that was it. They felt no need to hide nor broadcast the fact.

The rest ranged from flaming queen types to cross-dressers, to leather queens. I was young then and a lot of them would get drunk and hit on me in a good natured way. They were mostly just teasing me because I wasn't gay. Then they would get drunker and more depressed.

This was in the 1970's, the disco scene. One night I remarked to one of the younger gay guys that used to hustle drinks from the old gays that this one older guy seemed depressed. The younger guy told me that there is nothing more pathetic than an old queen.

I made me think. How sad.

Answer 3

Well put! However, what you're failing to understand is that being "homosexual vs. heterosexual", is no different that being "Right handed vs. Left handed".

RELIGION has it wrong and if you were inclined enough to educate yourself beyond the bible, you'd find out that the church needed a scapegoat early on in its beginnings to convert people. The church knew that society in general didn’t really understand gays, so unfortunately allot of misguided & uneducated people joined Christianity just because the Catholic church decided one day that being gay was bad and against their God. The ironic thing is, up until this point Christians had been performing gay marriages, but the Catholic church will never admit to that kind of documented proof!

EXPAND YOUR MIND!!!!!! THINK FOR YOURSELF! See beyond your misguided teachings and put a little heart into it. Don't you have any empathy? And don't give me that ... "I feel bad because you're going to hell crap".

Now, before you go off thinking I'm an atheist or some kind of devil worshipper, know this: I consider myself to be a proud RECOVERING Catholic who still very much considers himself Christian; just not as defined by a group of men in ROME who parade themselves around in dresses and fancy hats all day. Probably Drag Queens in denial if ask me!

God Made me!!! God is good and he makes no mistakes sweetheart. Haven't you realized that yet?

Go to the link below ... maybe you'll learn something!

Oh and one last thing: MY RIGHT TO EXIST WITHOUT PREJUDICE supersedes your right to open your big mouth. I'm a human being just like you, equal in every way. You're small minded pious beliefs go against all Human Rights which are recognised globally. You really need to screw off with your rhetoric!

Answer 4

Please realize that my responce to you is comming from a straight person who accepts our gay community and I am going to answer you the best I can. There are those on here and in our sociaty that do slander people who are different. I agree with you in the essence that you have every right to state your feelings on a topic and that you have reasons to believe in based on your religious background, upbringing and any other aspects of your life that have helped to shape the person you are. If you do not agree, then that is fine so long as you dont slander people who are different. It may say in the Bible that it is against god to be gay, but it also sais that god created our earth. Each person reguardless of race religion or creed deserves to be here and not be persecuted against. I have to say that I thank you for not trying to make people believe in what you do and I give you credit for stateing a question that is going to make alot of people mad and you will get alot of negative comments. If you do not agree with the gay community but can live with them in your neighborhood with out makeing their life miserable then you are more open minded then you may think you are. I would not ask you to change your belief system, and no one else should either. As long as you are open to honest disgussion on this topic then you are looking to learn rather than make the life of someone different harder. If you can be kind, and love all of Gods Earth even when you see things that may not be within his reason you are doing more than thoes who try to convert people and tell them that what they are doing is straight out wrong. Again, I dont agree with you, but I do respect you.

Answer 5

You are forgetting that hate speech is not part of free speech, and is not covered by the Constitution.

You can believe whatever you want. Just keep it to yourself.
If someone discusses their anti-LGBT hatreds in a public forum, it becomes hate speech, since its only intent is to harm others and foment anti-LGBT violence. By definition, as a gay man, you are attacking me when preaching anti-LGBT hatred, discrimination and bigotry.

You are NOT entitled to say "whatever you want" in all circumstances, especially when the purpose is to harm others. The other example often given is the unwarranted yelling of "Fire!" in a crowded theater.

Such speech is against the TOS and can be prosecuted, especially when done in conjuction with a hate crime.

Choose any path you want, but avoid criminal actions.
Of course, being tolerant and working for peace and justice seems to me a better use of your energy, but we each make our own choices, don't we?

Answer 6

Prejudiced- prejudging someone
Anti-Gay (Against gay -- connotating action) = anti equal human rights

Words are actions. try googling "Pyramid of Hate" to see just how powerful words are and their consequences. Free speech is to protect people's freedoms (equalities, protections). This means that if someone speaks and it limits human equality or protection, it is no longer considered free speech (equality and protections).

It isn't just about opinions, it is about people's human rights in jeapordy or being outright denied. Freedom isn't about limiting another person's freedom, or their protection. You, yourself, might be protected. If you are anti gay, and your anti-gay actions affect the freedoms and protections of other humans living in your country, this is more than just free speech.

I am pro human rights. This doesn't mean that I know every person who identifies as gay. This doesn't mean that I like every person who identifies as gay. This means that regaurdless of their social labels, I want equality for people as human beings, not as their social labels. Even if I myself do not identify as gay (which, I don't) and if I dont' believe it is morally right (we won't go there) I can excercise my freedom by abstaning from homosexuality, myself. (preserving my own equality and protection while not infringing on others')

If I vote against equal rights, or equal protections, or take some other action that limits humans from having equality, then i've taken action to give myself priviledge over others. If I were those others, I'd be pissed.

Answer 7

It sounds as though you are the one that needs to grow a tougher skin. Your right to "free speech" ends when it causes injury to another person(little things such as slander and libel laws back that up). If you do not like the repercussions of stating negative opinions, perhaps it is time for you to learn when to keep your mouth shut.

Answer 8

VOLTAIRE WAS NEVER A FOUNDING FATHER!!! He was a French author, humanist, rationalist, & satirist. He never took any part in the founding of THIS nation.

He who said those words you quoted, also has been noted as saying the following:

" A witty saying proves nothing. "

The ACTUAL quote was written thusly:

"Monsieur l'abbé, I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write. "
Voltaire, letter to M. le Riche, February 6, 1770

Your thinly veiled attempt to justify your hatred is truly a sad statement on the human condition.
I don't hate you or your religious views, but I do NOT go out of my way to make statements in the "religion & spirituality" category nor do I walk into churches telling everyone how I dislike their religion.
But YOU come in HERE and make your statements and EXPECT a friendly response?
That's like walking into the lions den covered with blood and expecting them not to attack you.

Answer 9

Forgive us for being sensitive to the fact that we are always having to defend ourselves against bigotry, prejudice, bashing, oppression, hate, criticism, discrimination, ridicule... by doing any of these thing YOU are attacking me. What makes you think u aren't?
Take yr advice and get a thicker skin....
If u are anti gay, you r a bigot, prejudice, etc... why wld u think u weren't?
I defend yr right to free speech... but yr freedom ends where MY nose begins.

Answer 10

I think it's because gay people are not accepted, so as we are fighting so hard, your opinion is working against us. If we had equal rights and you said how wrong you thought we were, it would probably be shrugged off. But since there are support groups to correct/fix gays and organizations that spread hate lies about gay people. It's really difficult for your opinion to sound different to us than someone who is against us. We have tough skin, that's why we deal with all of the haters and opinions against us. You are more than welcome to have your opinion, but we are allowed to have ours, and since you have more rights with your freedoms, you have to learn to deal, and accept us.