About Me

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Feminist. Pro-womanist. Anti-racist. Pro-GLBT rights. Pro-diversity of all kinds. Vegetarian/bordline-vegan. My spouse is Ghanaian. I've visited Ghana twice and think it is beautiful place, and one that everyone would be lucky to visit.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Let people be who they are- GLBTQI

A gay man was stomped nearly to death in a nearby town in Massachusetts. I don't understand people! Gay people are always going to be around. You can cry, kick, scream, thrash about- they're not going anywhere. So we have two options: we can continue to try to repress them and have millions of ruined male-female marriages because we are married to people who want to be with someone of the same sex but risk disapproval at best if they come out, or we can JUST LET PEOPLE BE WHO THEY ARE, love who they love, and fork who they want to fork (in this blog I will use the word fork instead of the obvious other word so as not to be crass).

If your reasons for disliking gays and lesbians (and bisexuals, transgendered people, inter-sex people, queers, etc.) is religious keep in mind not everyone is of the same religion. And not everyone of your religion views things exactly the same. There are many different interpretations for every holy book there is, and many rules that are listed in them are no longer followed; ask yourself: why am I so afraid of this one particular rule but not the others? Is it really religious or is it mostly out of fear? If you are interested in learning more feel free to ask me and I will find you some resources.

If your reason for disliking gays and lesbians is because they do not conform to their assigned gender roles (gay men are not "manly" enough, and lesbians are just too unfeminine), that is a different issue altogether. Not all straight men and women fit their assigned roles either. And not all gays and lesbians fit into the assumed butch/femme dichotomy (dichotomy means an either-or, polar opposite standard). People are becoming more and more aware these days that the gender roles and stereotypes that people believe in don't really fit anymore, and perhaps gender is just a social construct (or a role made up by society based on stereotypes about what is a man and what is a woman).

If your reason for disliking gays and lesbians is because you just find gay and lesbian sex to be "icky" then there's really no nice way to say this other than grow up! You don't have to imagine every couple having sex and there are plenty of straight couples that you would probably be grossed out thinking about doing the deed (think: your parents!).

Another reason people often cite is that gay sex is "unnatural". But people don't always do things that are natural anymore. In fact a lot of things are unnatural and we still use, buy, consume them. Also if we look to the animal world as the model of what is and isn't natural this theory is entirely untrue! Anyone who has been around more than ten dogs for any extended period of time has probably seen all kinds of activity between two dogs (and sometimes one dog and an inanimate object or a random body part, ie. your leg, etc.).

One thing I will say about gay sex that is true for all kinds of sex is that people need to use protection. Make sure you know how to use condoms, kids!