Originally posted by baltien:
Originally posted by Marvin49:
WOW.
Missing the point entirely. Look at my post #137 on this page. Pretty much answers everything you just said.
When I read stuff likw this it really disappoints me.
I all gay people simply wanted attention, they'd all be out. They aren't looking for more attention. All they want to to be trated like everyone else. The only way to have a society that will accept them as being like everyone else is to make it public, let everyone have their opinion on the topic, and move on.
I'm sorry but the line about being straight all your life just serves to further impune yourself. OF COURSE nobody gave a damn. Nobody beats you up because your straight. Nobody tells you you can't do something because your straight. Nobody picks on you becausem your straight. You don't fear people finding out that your straight because it might cost you your dream of playing in the NFL You can be free to be who you are at all times.
Gay people cannot.
In a perfect world, you would be correct. Nobody would care that one person is gay and another is not. In a perfect world there would be no NEED for all of the attention. Guess what tho.....this ain't Utopia. The is the real world. This is how stuff happens. If you don't understand this then you need to pick a few more history books.
I didn't bother to read ten pages of this thread (nor will I) but fair enough. I still firmly believe that a few isolated examples doesn't warrant all of the attention some people think being gay should, but by all means free to disagree.
Onto your other points, you're basically helping to prove my point. Getting beat up because you're homosexual is a pretty mild concern when compared to the threat of being murdered because of your color. And when applied to the context of pro sports, it's a tad overblown to say the least. Forgive me, but I have a very hard time envisioning the whole locker room suddenly converging upon some poor soul because he came out.
Granted, I can't say with absolute certainty that such a thing won't ever happen, but on the scale if probability I'd rank it right around the likelihood of me seeing Bigfoot jet-skiing at the beach.
"Gay people cannot."
....do what exactly? If memory serves, it has been quite illegal for some time now to discriminate against someone on the basis of their sexuality. And IIRC, physically harming someone for that reason is also hate crime.
So please, do provide some examples of all these things gay people can't do and how folks are openly getting away with it.
Seriously. I'd be interested to hear.
oi.
All you are arguing is a matter of degree.
The issue isn't the law (other than gay marriage, but thats a separate issue and we weren't talking about that). Your argument seems to be "they haven't suffered the way we suffered so all this hype is unwarranted". Thats quite a load of BS right there.
The amount of hype around the way homosexuals have been treated and their rights under the law is NOTHING compared to the outcry for racial equality thoughout the checkered history of this country....and rightfully so. An entire war was faught over slavery. Racial bigotry exists to this very day and you can look at the way the president is teated as an example. Would there really be any question about his birth certificate if he were white? No. Proof? McCain was born in PANAMA. Almost never mentioned in the election.
I'm not trying to argue that one equals the other. It is possible tho to use one to illustrate a point about the way socierty tends to deal with issues that make them uncomfortable.
The larger point is that the way a society deals with things is to blow them up and make them exteremely visable so that they can no longer be ignored. People who don't want to look at them are forced to. People who wouold be afraid to voice their opinions gain courage and say what they want to say. In this case many people who would be afraid to come out find the courage to do so. In doing so, people who have issues with gay people find out that they know alot more of them than they think they do. They gain understanding.
All of this leads to being gay not being something someone feels ashamed of or ashamed to share. It becomes "normal". It becomes something the media doesn't have to blow out of proportion because it isn't a story anymore.
THAT was the point I was making in regards to the Black QB. It was a story when Doug Williams was the first Black QB in the Super Bowl. It wasn't a story anymore when Kaep was in the Super Bowl. Thats progress.
I'm sorry you are offended by that, but I stand by the comparison. Gay people don't need to be persecuted at the same level for the analogy to hold.
[ Edited by Marvin49 on Apr 14, 2013 at 2:37 PM ]