What specific LGBT item below do you feel would most effect the anti-gay community to abandon their prejudice?

Question

Gays being given the right to marry, which would legally indicate the federal government supports all its citizens?

The APA revelation that homosexuality is not a disease but is a natural condition? (Already occurred but news travels slowly.)

The fact that animals in the wild (over 1,500 species so far discovered) exhibit "gay" behavior (have sex with their own gender!) (This phenomenon arguing in favor that homosexuality is a "natural state" as opposed to a "chosen state of evil or deviance"?)

Violence against gays, "gay motivated hate crimes"?

The fact that Jesus never spoke a single word in his life against homosexuality, nor did God in his direct communication (for those who believe in Old Testament) with the Ten Commandments?

Something not listed here? Please share what you feel would help to sway those filled with hate to a more loving and accepting posture.

Thank you in advance for your answers.

Me too Tom W - ty for your answer

stmichaeldet - a society allowing for gaps would be magical to me! ty for answering

Selym - valuable answer, I'll add it to the list if I ever ask this question again. ty

Sad but true HMFan - ty

gi - you hang tough, you are the hope of our world

Tegarst - you're right - ty

happy - ty, so there's hope then!

Jon M - I like your plan, sign me up!

juan - hear hear! (hope he read this)

sonicjmc - um. LMAO!!!! You go girl!

AlphaWolf - I think you're right about the shows especially... making it less mysterious anyway - ty

...and frosey, if you've ever been wrong in your life, then your ability to be so again is present. But again, just bustin' out that blasted logic again.

Answer 1

It is going to take a combination of all those things you mention plus a few more. Hopefully people will recognize that we are all bound in this experience of humanity by our diversity. It is going to take some time but I am sure we will get there eventually. Will this happen within my lifetime? I certainly hope so and remain optimistic that it will.

Answer 2

I hate to say it, but I think the only thing that is going to change all of those minds is going to be a very thorough education. There are so many bogus reasons for perpetuating the hatred that the ignorant have easy access to something that they can identify with where all of this is concerned. I also think there needs to be more unity...both with those in the LGBT community and those who understand and accept differences in others in spite of the fact that they don't share the same preferences.

It's going to be a long, hard battle, but by demonstrating unwavering intelligence, unshakeable unity and unrivaled courage in the face of hostility, I believe it can be done.

I also think that broadening the scope of understanding to the powers that be has already begun, even if it is in its early stages. It is becoming less cool to condescend to the LGBT community. A few politicians do specifically campaign to LGBT issues. Not enough, but its a start. Then there are the tv shows and movies that are helping to make the subject less taboo and more acceptable. This helps and it's helped to weaken the hold the ignorant have on their misguided beliefs. The oppositions defenses are wavering...weaker than they have been for a long time. It's a perfect time to turn up the heat and refute bias with undisputable logic and commmon sense. There is already a crack in their walls. Great opportunity to knock a big hole in the entire structure.

Anyway, I don't have a clear cut plan, but I do think that getting together the proper information backed up with all the proof and facts available and putting it out there for the mainstream to see would be another good start. Thinkers will see the point. The fools never will no matter what is done, but I do believe the fools are a dying breed.

Hope I wasn't too confusing?

Answer 3

I think that if there were more study on the connection of homophobia to repressed homosexual feelings in men, and widespread dissemination of the results, that would help. I would fully expect that the result of those studies would be strong reconfirmation of the connection between the two, i.e., homophobia and repressed homosexuality. I don't think that people who are repressed like this are necessarily even aware that they have these feelings, but the feelings can manifest themselves in a situation in which the person isn't in conscious control, such as in the one study I know of that was done on this.
Once outspoken homophobic men catch on to the fact that by expressing homophobia, they out themselves, they'd be forced to deal with their own problem instead of inflicting it on other people.
Furthermore, if there ARE some people who simply use rabid hate-mongering as an issue to raise money, as some in the religious right may do, the effect would be the same. The majority of society would view them as merely outing themselves rather than as propounding some profound truth, and their credibility would be that much more damaged.
As far as swaying people who are filled with hate, let's be realistic about this. You really cannot get through to someone like that most of the time. Trying to convince them that gays are human and not "abominations" is going to be futile when gays are the one making the argument, because they won't listen. You don't value the opinion of an "abomination" and if you're homophobic, you've already abandoned rationality when it comes to homosexuality. The problem is with them, not us as a group. That's what I propose- encourage study, as I said, and keep pounding away at the third-party scientific evidence as to what homophobia entails, that it's a problem withing their personality, that homosexuals as a group are NOT the problem, so they're forced to deal with it within themselves.

Answer 4

Wouldn't it be great if these would work...unfortunately the only way to stop people from prejudices would be to stop hate in stupidity. Unfortunately that isn;t going to happen. I hope that teaching my children that a homosexual relationship is as normal as a heterosexual one and that love is love will in some way help a little. If all parents would just be honest and forthright with their children maybe some of the hate and misunderstandings would stop. thank you for the information you provided.. I was not aware of some of it..Very interesting. While waiting for this country to be "fair" celebrate who you are, Love like there is no tomorrow and remember that not all of us "heterosexuals" are prejudice or anti-gay. Good luck!

Answer 5

Rational facts and truth never swayed a frightened person from his irrational point of view. The anti-gay community is made up of LOTS of terrified people.

So the first step might be to help them get un-frightened. How to do that, I'm not sure. But if we could, then maybe they would be rational enough to see the error of their bigotry.

Or maybe not: maybe some just enjoy being hateful bigots. Go figure.

Answer 6

Asking non-gay people what prejudice, any prejudice, they felt directed against them at some time (this can be as simple as not being picked for kickball as a kid to or misconceptions about the way someone dresses.) How did the prejudice make them feel? Did they lash out in anger, cry, get depressed, try to defend themselves? When you're on the winning team, its very easy to forget one's humility.

Answer 7

Unfortunately I don't see a single thing in your list that will have that kind of effect on the homophobic community, until AND unless they do what I did to change their opinions, which is not to think about a person's sexual orientation and to get to know that person for who they are on the INSIDE. I have a wonderful friend that is homosexual but sad to say a few years before I had the pleasure of meeting and getting to know him, I was something of a homophobe on account a girl realized that she was homosexual and she turned on me as a friend. I had to let go of my anger and hate of her and realize that the person that I used to know was basically dead to me. When I met my friend I didn't think about him being gay or straight or what, I just knew that he was a wonderful person and a mutural friend of ours let is slip that he was gay and by then I could've cared less because I knew that he was a good person and that is all I needed to know about him.

Answer 8

The most important thing is education. The more out gays get involved within their community and let others see we are multi dimensional beings, the more people will learn to accept us.

Currently, many people do not know someone that is gay, so the only thing they go by is biased media reports and stereotypes.

♂♂

Answer 9

None of the above, unfortunately.

The anti-gay community believes as they do because it is the logical extension of their own closely-held beliefs, philosophies, and moral codes. Given any of the scenarios you describe above, they would most likely either take it as further evidence of the moral decadence of modern society, propaganda designed to sway the unwary, or simply irrelevant.

You're not going to magically create a society where no one hates you. The trick is creating a society that allows for a safe distance between those groups that hate each other.

Answer 10

Nothing short of God Himself coming down from the heavens in some unmistakable form and slapping the **** out of the bigots is going to change the anti-LBGT people.