a rant
Wow, so much *headdesk* I don't even know what to do with it.
At lunch today one person I eat with was saying how in Jamaica they wanted to have a gay pride parade but the people opposed to it were so "radical" in their thinking that they shut it down. So right away I had to put in that no, that wasn't "radical" thinking, it was conservative thinking.
Then she got in with how she can be good friends with a gay person but she could never support their lifestyle and that in Jamaica that's the way it is. Do what you want to do but do it behind closed doors and no one should be forced to think it's okay. I don't like that really. I personally don't like the idea of saying that you're good friends with someone but when it comes to how they live their lives you don't support them at all. In my mind that makes you not a friend. If I had people say that they were friends with me but because I'm straight they didn't like how I lived that friendship would be over.
The comparison was then made to people pushing their religion down peoples throat. I think that's a different thing altogether and said so. Gay people are not trying to convert people by having a parade or living an open lifestyle, they're just being free to celebrate who they are and how they love. There's nothing saying that if you don't change then you go to hell etc. There's no incentive to "convert" and there's no punishment for being straight. It's just having the right to exist openly. I think religions have that right already. Also many religions will preach that being gay is wrong, or a sin etc but a lot of gay people still practice religion.
THEN this person continues on to say that being gay is like being an alcoholic. Which I really disagreed with because being an alcoholic is a disease, it's also harmful to yourself and to your family/friends. Being gay is not so much any of those things.
Well she goes on to say that no, people are just prone to being weak over certain things and that being an alcoholic isn't a disease, it's just a weakness and that to her being gay is just another weakness. When I argued this she said that being promiscuous fit into that same catagory and that "you wouldn't be friends with someone who is promiscuous would you?" (Anyone else having a 'Girl Interrupted' moment?) and hello, yes I would be friends with someone if they were permiscuous. It's somewhat the same in that I feel who one chooses to sleep with is none of my buisness unless it's me. However again, it's not really the same thing. All three of the things she's lumped into the category of "weaknesses" are not related at all.
This is the point when I said that now I was offended and leaving... she kept trying to "explain" to me how I was wrong in my thinking as I left.
It just drives me crazy. I think that everyone should be able to live as they like as long as they're not hurting anyone. Who cares how you love, if you're lucky enough to find someone to be in love with then what should it matter to anyone else who it is?
At lunch today one person I eat with was saying how in Jamaica they wanted to have a gay pride parade but the people opposed to it were so "radical" in their thinking that they shut it down. So right away I had to put in that no, that wasn't "radical" thinking, it was conservative thinking.
Then she got in with how she can be good friends with a gay person but she could never support their lifestyle and that in Jamaica that's the way it is. Do what you want to do but do it behind closed doors and no one should be forced to think it's okay. I don't like that really. I personally don't like the idea of saying that you're good friends with someone but when it comes to how they live their lives you don't support them at all. In my mind that makes you not a friend. If I had people say that they were friends with me but because I'm straight they didn't like how I lived that friendship would be over.
The comparison was then made to people pushing their religion down peoples throat. I think that's a different thing altogether and said so. Gay people are not trying to convert people by having a parade or living an open lifestyle, they're just being free to celebrate who they are and how they love. There's nothing saying that if you don't change then you go to hell etc. There's no incentive to "convert" and there's no punishment for being straight. It's just having the right to exist openly. I think religions have that right already. Also many religions will preach that being gay is wrong, or a sin etc but a lot of gay people still practice religion.
THEN this person continues on to say that being gay is like being an alcoholic. Which I really disagreed with because being an alcoholic is a disease, it's also harmful to yourself and to your family/friends. Being gay is not so much any of those things.
Well she goes on to say that no, people are just prone to being weak over certain things and that being an alcoholic isn't a disease, it's just a weakness and that to her being gay is just another weakness. When I argued this she said that being promiscuous fit into that same catagory and that "you wouldn't be friends with someone who is promiscuous would you?" (Anyone else having a 'Girl Interrupted' moment?) and hello, yes I would be friends with someone if they were permiscuous. It's somewhat the same in that I feel who one chooses to sleep with is none of my buisness unless it's me. However again, it's not really the same thing. All three of the things she's lumped into the category of "weaknesses" are not related at all.
This is the point when I said that now I was offended and leaving... she kept trying to "explain" to me how I was wrong in my thinking as I left.
It just drives me crazy. I think that everyone should be able to live as they like as long as they're not hurting anyone. Who cares how you love, if you're lucky enough to find someone to be in love with then what should it matter to anyone else who it is?