"I have a gay friend" does not make you less of a bigot, people

[jaquiel]

I don't really understand why the fuck people feel as though this argument is even vaguely approaching valid. The whole, "You can't say someone like me is against gay people - I have a gay friend!"

Putting aside the fact that if you deny someone the same rights that you have, you're the worst fucking friend ever, there's also the fact that the

Comments

[hieronymousb]

Ha! Ironically, people were just discussing this on a recent entry of mine It's very true. What your friends are/believe has no bearing on what you are/believe. I have friends with all kinds of views I don't agree with. Doesn't mean jackshit for my own views. If you can tolerate "gay friends", all it means it you are not necessarily the total scum of the Earth who would dropkick a friend out of friendship for being gay. It doesn't mean you may not have other homophobic biases which you need to confront.

In the same light, I think the "I have XYZ friends" card actually becomes a pass for some people to become that much more homophobic or racist and feel they are justified in talking shit. Case in point: in my geography class last spring, there was this guy who was saying some seriously racist shit, like joking to some black friend that he was going to beat him up or whip him or something, but he was like, oh, it's not racist! Because I have black friends, and my black friends are okay with me talking that way.

...

I'm sure it's that they're fine with it, of course, and not just, y'know, that they probably don't want to get into a fight or cause conflict or get accused of "playing the race card". Yeah, uh-huh. Ascribing motives. But I often hear some of the most racist or homophobic shit come out of people's mouths before/after the "I have gay/black friends" line. I seem to even remember Fred Phelps's family were talking about how OMG, they had gays who worked for them, and those gays were OKAY with them . . . as if that makes all the rampant "God Hates Fags!" stuff okay! What the hell. Worst defense ever.