What's So Gay About Gay?
Well, so what, someone is gay. Differently oriented. Big deal. Get on with life. Make something of your life; homosexuality is no deterrence to getting on with life any longer.But guess what? Gender preferences and one's sexual orientation is a personal matter and should be maintained in that manner. As something private, something not necessarily to be shared by everyone else. The fact is, everyone else is not all that interested. You're homosexual, transgendered, lesbian, and proud of it? All right, why not? But guess what? I just don't care all that much. I've got my life to lead and you've got yours. Go to it, guys.
And here's something else: I'm not the only one whose orientation is heterosexual that feels that way. Most people, regardless of their gender and sexual orientation believe that this is a private matter, not for public display or discussion. Because, really, who cares? Yes, gays have had a truly difficult time of it, because of the prejudices of most societies, and that had to change. And it did, over time. Most intelligent people are more than ready to subscribe to the imperative of the equality of persons.
So why the hell do gays continue to insist on being treated differently? In insisting on the right to marriage, gays and lesbians are merely behaving like spoiled little brats to whom much has been given, but who feel nothing is ever enough. Mores and apprehensions have been irreversibly altered on behalf of gays' rights to be viewed and treated just like anyone else, and that is only right and proper.
Marriage, however, is a religious, cultural, civic institution long honoured as a partnership between two people of opposite genders. And traditionally marriage has been the convention whereby children have been bred and raised in a socially accepting and legally binding manner to ensure that the rights of children under the law and in society are upheld.
There are other means whereby equal opportunities and equal benefits can be assured, which can be and are utilized for the purpose of ensuring that gays and lesbians are able to take full advantage of all that others claim as their due. To spurn an alternate, but equal method of ensuring equal treatment is childish and churlish. Gays continue to demand respect, and they equate respect with full availability of all traditional institutions be open to their use.
Which, to me, indicates a gross disrespect of traditional institutions meant to protect other, more vulnerable members of society. It would be far easier to render respect where it is due. When gays and lesbians cease their continual whining demands for more and yet more, insisting that heterosexuals agree to giving up what they have held sacred.
It's bordering on vicious when a religious group known for its reluctant discomfort with gays is approached with the demand that gays be accommodated in a private venue despite the history of not being freely accepted by that group. When the Knights of Columbus group discovered that their hall had been rented by a lesbian couple they couldn't see themselves accommodating the event, and offered instead to find an alternate venue, pay for its rental and for new invitations.
The vindictive response to take the group to court and to sue them was socially pointless. Yes, the court upheld the lesbian couple's contention that they were hard done by under the law, but in the greater social order of things they did themselves no favours. You cannot impress people favourably by nasty manners; you cannot force people to accept what you are, what you do, for everyone has a right to their own opinion as long as they do not deliberately do you harm.
When someone refuses to sell his services to you because he doesn't agree with something about you, he has a perfect right as an individual to do so. It isn't all that difficult to find someone else similarly qualified who will be willing to serve your needs. It's done all the time, for reasons other than sexual orientation. It begs intelligence and social goodwill to insist that someone serve you who chooses not to for any reason, unless they have the status of a public servant, paid out of group taxes to serve all of society.
I'll respect you for not shoving yourselves in my face at every opportunity. I don't want my hard-earned tax dollars to pay for a gay parade. Get a private sponsor as so many other events do, or raise the money yourselves to pay for it. I wouldn't willingly pay for most such public displays. I don't flaunt myself at others and don't anticipate that others will do so to me, and yet demand that this be acceptable.
And I truly do believe that these vocal and obnoxious behaviours are evidenced by a minimum of gays and lesbians, on their own behalf, and that they're not really representative of the whole whom they claim to represent. They're as much an embarrassment, an annoyance to other gays and lesbians as they are to me. It's the prerogative of selfish, ego-driven children to be obnoxious, not people who have attained adulthood.
Be gay, learn to laugh at yourselves, at the utter absurdity of your positions. Become functioning adults and you will be respected for joining the rest of society, sexual orientation aside.
It's time.
posted by Pieface @ Monday, October 09, 2006
<< Home