Right on!

[gridlore]

Fellow GURPSian (and all-around smart and interesting fellow) jackwalker wrote a wonderful piece on gay rights and acceptance in his journal, and with permission I'm posting a link to it here.

On homosexuality

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I much prefer arguments for equality along his line; of being people entitled to the same rights as others instead of the more typical choice/not choice distraction.

That he has several disclaimers about not being gay rather does point out the stigma still attached, no?

[jackwalker.livejournal.com]

That he has several disclaimers about not being gay rather does point out the stigma still attached, no?

Yeah, it occurred to me later that I was probably protesting too much. Certainly when someone loudly disclaims being X (where X is some thing that's stigmatized, like being gay), one might suspect ulterior motives.

I think the point I was trying to make, though, is that it doesn't matter whether you're gay or not. Even if you definitively aren't, the issue of gay rights is still a challenge to your commitment to human equality, dignity, and freedom. In fact, the challenge may be stronger if it isn't your own humanity you're being asked to defend. After all, it's easy to protest when you're at risk. It's when the other guy's rights are being trampled, and yours are not at risk, that your ideals are really tested.

In any case, it also seemed to me that it might do my GLBT acquaintances some good to know that even someone who doesn't grok that mode of existence can still recognize injustice when he sees it.

[kengr]

The disclaimer (if believed) can actually help.

I'm not only part of the GLBT community, I've also had a certain "kink" since a *very* early age (early enough that I can't see any way for it to be anything but "nature" rather than "nurture")

But every reference to it in popular culture was that it was sick (at best!).

So growing up with that, I'd been indoctrinated to think I was a bad person. And all the folks who also share that kink or had similar kinks saying that there was nothing wrong with it didn't really change that feeling *because* they were like me.

I finally "came out" to someone I was in love with. And then discovered that I'd misread an email as being a reply to one of mine where I'd hinted at things. It hadn't been.

They told me they needed to think about it. And I was certain that I'd ruined everything. A couple days later we talked. And they told me that they didn'tr understand it and they weren't interested in it but that they saw nothing wrong with my being "into" it.

Being told by someone with no interest that they saw nothing wrong with it was what broke the old conditioning.

So your disclaimers may help some folks.