This post is part of the Write to Marry Day - Support for Marriage Equality."I don't think the world's biggest problem is two people who love each other so much that they want to spend the rest of their lives together. (via comments on dooce.com)"
With things heating up in the final days before the election, I have endured and read about some unfortunate confrontations over "the homosexuals" and their battle "against" marriage in California. I have donated to the cause, and fretted about the consequences of Proposition 8.
While I am worried that marriage rights will be taken away in California, I am incredibly disturbed by the tendency to de-humanize and vilify lesbians and gays in order to mobilize people to vote against them. I worry people forget that these individuals have mothers, fathers and partners who love and care for them, that they are more interested in building their own lives than in destroying the lives of others, and that they only ask the rights which others already enjoy.
I wonder if hate crimes against lesbians and gays would have decreased, rather than increased in the past year, if people could see lesbians and gays as actual people they could be friends with, rather than enemies.
I wonder if my father would still be talking to me, if he could see me as something other than an enemy to his marriage and family.
I wonder if Prop 8 would have less support, if more people had lesbian and gay friends in their immediate circles.
It's more difficult to vilify and then discriminate against a group of people when we put a face on them and/or get to know them. The brilliance of blogging is that it gives us the chance to see lesbians and gays as something more than a threatening, ominous enemy, but as real people, people we could be friends with, people we could even support and love.
While I am worried that marriage rights will be taken away in California, I am incredibly disturbed by the tendency to de-humanize and vilify lesbians and gays in order to mobilize people to vote against them. I worry people forget that these individuals have mothers, fathers and partners who love and care for them, that they are more interested in building their own lives than in destroying the lives of others, and that they only ask the rights which others already enjoy.I wonder if hate crimes against lesbians and gays would have decreased, rather than increased in the past year, if people could see lesbians and gays as actual people they could be friends with, rather than enemies.
I wonder if my father would still be talking to me, if he could see me as something other than an enemy to his marriage and family.
I wonder if Prop 8 would have less support, if more people had lesbian and gay friends in their immediate circles.
It's more difficult to vilify and then discriminate against a group of people when we put a face on them and/or get to know them. The brilliance of blogging is that it gives us the chance to see lesbians and gays as something more than a threatening, ominous enemy, but as real people, people we could be friends with, people we could even support and love.
I hope people will take the chance to put a face on the individuals that will be affected by Prop 8 (One example: We Are Not the Enemy), and I hope they will support equality by voting No on Prop 8.
5 comments:
I wonder if Prop 8 wouldn't be on the November ballot, if more people had lesbian and gay friends.
... but doesn't everyone have gay and lesbian friends? Almost every personal essay I've read that promotes Prop 8 includes the phrase "some of my best friends are gay, but..." (always with the "but").
while i do agree that quite a majority of the population is linked to homosexuals (whether through situations, or friends, or family), i think the process of truly befriending someone involves eliminating the labels that might be associated with them. that being said, i think there is a very delicate distinction that many people are perhaps subconsciously making in the debate surrounding proposition 8. politically, religiously, it doesn't seem to differ so much from other issues people have defended rather impersonally under the name of politics or religion, forgetting personal connections and clinging to stereotypes and labels. i feel like this began as an impersonal attack on the label of homosexuality, justified in full under the blanket of supposed religious morality, but really it's branched into rooting negative and incorrect stereotypes and generating fear against an attack on "the greater cause."
a girl i know stood utterly open-mouthed when she heard that i was not only friends with, but BEST friends with not one, but MANY friends with homosexual orientations. through our conversation i learned that she had numerous connections to homosexuals - including past friends, three uncles, and her grandmother. (can i repeat that? grandma?) at the end of the day, though she had been "friends" with them, she was never able to disassociate them from their label. they were homosexuals, not friends who had same sex attraction.
i guess, really, i am just agreeing with you. i wish that we could recognize that defense in the name of religion or politics doesn't justify what it really is: attacks on the rights of our friends and family.
I disagree. A lot of people don't know gay people or least "out" people.
Those of us who go to college or live in certain parts of the country are much more likely to know, befriend, and love gay people.
My own sister has never known a gay person, and she went to college.
haha. I love that you submitted your pic to that website. I think you should have changed your residency to CA just for the elections.
i wouldn't really know how to act around gay people.
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