All the same...I never said anything about 'acting straight'
In all fairness, you've never actually said gay people should act straight. But what you do say all points to that conclusion. Gay people should, "keep their mouths shut" and we shouldn't shove homosexuality in peoples faces. The more I read your replies, the stronger I get the impression you wouldn't care if the whole world was gay, just so long as you didn't have to know about it.
Ignorance is not bliss.
For me
not to tell people I'm gay, for me
not to hold my boyfriend's hand in public, for me
not to say, "Honey, do we need milk?" while we are at the grocery store would all lead people to believe I was straight. That's the default, that's what's normal right? Being straight? If nobody ever knows I'm gay, then I'm acting straight. Simple as that.
You say that anything besides keeping our mouths shut is belittling to those that have struggled for equality in the past. You say that I don't know what discrimination is because there aren't gay and straight water fountains, or because I don't get made to sit at the back of the bus, or because I wasn't banned from a public pool.
Yet you're the one telling me that I need to keep my mouth shut. You're the one telling me I should hide my sexuality because you don't think it's right. And you say I don't know what discrimination is...ha! You don't want to see what you're doing as discrimination because you don't want to be wrong. You don't want to be a part of the same group of people that discriminated against you. Well you are. The moment you tell me I can't do something you can do equals discrimination. The moment you tell me to keep my mouth shut you oppress me.
It's almost as if you're jealous that I can hide being gay and therefore avoid the discrimination you feel you've been subject to because it's not as easy for you to hide your race. Seems kinda ironic that gay people choose to out themselves and subject themselves to public ridicule and discrimination when we could so easily avoid all of that. I wonder why we do that? Is it because we
are making the sacrifices you don't think we're willing to make? I think so.
It's you who belittles the struggles of those in the past by telling me to keep my mouth shut. Every black person that fought for freedom could of kept his mouth shut and remained a slave. The whole world could of kept it's mouth shut and let the Jews be exterminated. And I'm sure there are plenty of times you could kept your mouth shut to avoid some of the problems you've had in your life.
So no, I will not keep quiet. I will continue to fight for equal, not special, treatment of all members of the human race.
Fact is...it's none of my business what goes on in your bedroom...just as it's none of your business what goes on in mine.
What does me telling somebody I'm gay got to do with what goes on in my bedroom? I know people who are gay who have never had gay sex. I don't know any gay people who go up and say, "Hello, my name is Bob, I'm gay and last night my boyfriend plowed me up the ass."
Me knowing that you're straight doesn't tell me what you and your boyfriend do in the bedroom. The two of you might have the world's most vanilla sex, or maybe you like to dress up in a French maid outfit and spank him with a paddle. I don't know and I don't care. As you've stated, it's nobody's business.
To equate telling somebody that they're gay with automatically telling them what they do in their bedroom is silly. I can't recall a single time I've ever given details about what I do in the bedroom to a straight person. But I've heard plenty of straight people talk about what they do.
As for the religious aspect...why don't you reread what I've already posted. I have started my own religion. I even offered you the ability to join if you like. Actually, it's more a philosophy, a way of life, then a god worshiping religion. Call it what you like, I've already done it.
My statement that people were burned at the stake for disagreeing with religious dogma is not a cop-out and is still valid today. Maybe not in practice, but in theory. Gay people get beat up and killed for being gay just like Jews got beat up and killed for being Jews, just like Christians got beat up and killed for being Christians.
Just because the methods are different doesn't mean the thought behind them isn't the same.
Originally posted by MitchSchaft
So, I wonder if I can come up with excuses as to why murder should be right... I can't because it's wrong I guess.
Homo and race issues are so different. You can't compare them, mr. B.
Are you comparing finding an excuse for murder to be ok with trying to find an excuse for homosexuality to be ok? Now those are two issues that are so far from each other you can't compare them.
Discrimination against race, religion, gender, age, sexuality or any number of other reasons can all be equally compared.
1. Homo has become a derogatory form of the word homosexual, just like nigger is a derogatory from of the word negro.
2. My job is in an accounts receivable department. I work on the phones all day. Nobody I talk to has any idea what I or any of the people I work with look like.
One of the ladies that I work with relayed this story to me.
A local customer used to call in and would only talk with her because he hated black people. Every time he would call in he would only ask for her and wouldn't speak with any of the black people in our office. One day they transferred this lady to an office that customers could come into. Lo and behold in walks this gentleman to visit the one lady he's worked with for several years.
Imagine his surprise when he found out she was black. He threw a fit. Told her that she wasn't who she claimed to be and stormed out of the office. He never spoke to her again. After all those years she helped him, after all of the nice things he had said to her, he let the one thing she kept secret destroy all of that.
She had done what Gato thinks I should do. She had kept her mouth shut and what good did it do her? The moment she was found out she was discriminated against.
3. Did you know that homosexuals were one of the first groups rounded up by the Nazis? Even before the rounding up of Jews, gays were forced to wear pink triangles on their sleeves and were rounded up and forced into concentration camps or killed.
So don't tell me it's not the same. Hate is hate. Discrimination is discrimination. It's all pointless.