A coworker I'm friends with recently surprised me. He was reading an article on FB via his phone and started ranting about how, "If you don't castrate yourself to LGBT equality your labeled an evil bigoted racist." I decided to talk to him to find out what brought him (and I guess the people he's getting this from) to make such a ridiculous claim. Eventually I figured out that he was completely against homosexuality. I told him that a persons sexual or romantic attraction to a person is irrelevant. But he disagreed. What he said is that gays have a special "lifestyle" and it was this that was sinful. He wouldn't elaborate on what that ment. I can only assume, but I'm pretty sure it has with a complete ignorance of homosexual sex and many different sex scenes (BDSM for example). And I guess he's conflating those things into one, and somehow thinks satan is involved. Or maybe he actually believes that gays are warlocks or something. Either way it's a strange conclusion to come to. What do you think about this gay "lifestyle" that's separate from the SCARY BUTT SEX!?
Not sure how much you want to press the issue, but if you were trying to persuade him otherwise, did you go through the classic (i) there's a lot of evidence that sexuality is determined before birth, including the fact that if one identical twin is gay, there's a 50% chance the other twin will be as well, which works out as suggesting that sexuality is 70% genetic, (ii) when did he choose to be straight (assuming he is) (iii) homosexuality has been observed in at least 1,500 species and well documented in at least 500 (if he doesn't believe this, just YouTube gay lions or similar) and so on. To say nothing of the question of exactly why anyone would choose to be part of a stigmatised section of society with the added perk of finding that 95% of the people you find attractive will never reciprocate that. And if he accepts that it's not a choice, I don't see how you can hold a position that it is wrong for Christians to be denied the right to be prejudiced against us without also holding the view that it was wrong for the civil rights movement to deprive the KKK of its right to be prejudiced against black people.
I'm usually a heavy debater, but for some reason I have no desire to attempt to debate with him about. I think It's heavily involved with whatever religious group he associates with and doubt it has to do with his own reasoning.
I hate to even share my theory on this but I will anyway--- because I really would like to know if anyone else thinks this way? I believe that most "haters" have had some same sex sexual arousal at sometime in their lives and are overcompensating …… Am I totally off the mark with this conclusion?
I've heard this from several people, as well. Most recently, a religious friend of mine told me that they 'couldn't believe I was really gay' because I didn't live the 'homosexual lifestyle' she was expecting. Even now, she disagrees with homosexuality because of 'their lifestyle' and just assumes that I'm an exception to the norm. I think that most people don't realize that they know gay people in real life and so they judge homosexual behavior throughout the rest of the year by what they see in the major Pride parades. So, basically, they assume that homosexuals spend their life partying, doing drugs, speaking against heteronormativity/religious organizations, and hooking up with strangers--which they consider 'sinful'. However, that 'reason' is just as silly as judging the everyday behavior of heterosexuals by what you see during Mardi Gras.
^this Also I'm pretty sure the guy has Waterfall. He also has all these " strong" arguments to defend against religious skeptisim. Clearly he doesn't like having doubts
Maybe the 'homosexual lifestyle' he's talking about is a threat to these people because it brings homosexuality into the public sphere where it is more visible to them. As long as we're not visible and 'pass' as heterosexual in our everyday life, these people don't need to acknowledge that there is homosexuality and maybe don't have to acknowledge as waterfall said their own sexual desires. I think it's the same as saying how we throw our sexuality in their face.
Well, firstly, that it's not a new argument. It's been around since the '50s at least. Other than that I usually respond with these: Liz Feldman, quoted in Harper, Robyn (6 June 2012)
There's a great saying that seems to apply here: "Never argue with fools, because from a distance, people can't tell who's who."
I think that's probably true of many, but not most. A lot of people are just disgusted by homosexuality. Every now and then we'll hear of a homophobe turning out to be gay, but we will never know that a homophobe is completely straight. 95% of people in Uganda say they disapprove of homosexuality. It seems unlikely that they all feel significant amounts of same-sex attraction. Although you might say that the people who lead the homophobic opinion are doing so out of an attempt at self-denial. The leader in this week's Economist is about gay rights around the world. One set of figures that was interesting is that in 1985 24% of Americans knew someone who was gay. Today 75% do. In Russia it's still about 20%.
