Words are Loud, but You are Louder

FOREWORD: This editorial contains graphic words and is not for everyone. Everything in this post is in reference to the approaches not the idea. These are not attacks. They are suggestions. 

If you associate yourself with one of the following continue reading: 
     • Member of the Homosexual Community 
     • Gay Rights Activist 
     • Person Interested in the Gay Rights Movement

If not, you will most likely find this post useless. 

     Gays. Throughout history they have been discriminated against. They have been attacked, quieted, and treated like crap. Christians hate them and damn them to hell. Republicans restrict them and keep them from marriage. The world disrespects them and separates them from equality.

     These people try to bring you down. They don’t respect you. They treat you like you are different. 

Come out! Stand out! Shout out!

      To be prevalent in this “accepting” gay community, you have to be an activist. In all honesty those that do not make reference to their sexuality serve as better examples to lead by. When you separate yourself from the crowd, when you wear shirts claiming your homosexuality, when you protest those that don’t respect your view on life, you take three steps back.

What is ineffective about these common approaches? 
     • Standing out in an attempt to fit in. You claim to want to be treated as equals, the same, yet you go out of your way to make yourself standout wherever you go.
     • Anti-protesting. Protesting is protesting. If you dislike the way that others go about expressing their opinions, why do you imitate it to express yours? When you anti-protest it is the equivalent to the flame of a lighter meeting with the flame of another. The fire does not extinguish, but flares up to burn you.
     • Preaching love, but showing hate. Few are against the general idea of love; some are just against some of the specifics. You say that you should respect love no matter in what form, but when the context contains so much hate and demeaning guilt tactics you have just contradicted yourself and therefore proven your arguments invalid.
     • Wearing clothing to serve as a constant reminder of your sexual orientation (most commonly the excessive use of rainbow items) is really a constant reminder that, “hey! I’m different.” Is that the goal?

     These methods do not help your cause. Counterproductive—this is the best word I can find to make my point. When you do or say these things you stop people from approaching, listening, learning. You can’t make a point, if no one is listening. Diction is the key that will open their minds to your ideas.

  


      Fire blazing like an inferno. Smoke billowing in giant black haunting clouds. People jumping from buildings with fear, and the images of their families racing through their minds. Why? Our nation was forced to face this tragic event, children forced to live without their moms or dads, all because some radicals thought they were doing well. In the minds of these terrorists, America was a threat to their religion and culture. To promote the success of the Islamic religion they thought crashing passenger planes into buildings full of innocent people was a positive thing. Due to these few men’s actions, the Islamic followers have been separated, suspected, and accused of terrorist beliefs.

     The point is radicals are the logo. In every religion, every ethnicity, every social group, those with the loudest voice are the voice.

     I am a Christian. Personally, I am not happy with the generalities that derived from my religion’s radical protests. I don’t like to be known as an anti-abortion, gay-hating, science-rejecting, Christian. I know not everyone thinks this way towards Christianity but based on those with the loudest and most-publicized opinions in the Christian communities, those have become common misconceptions. I understand why people think this way towards Christians. I am guilty of the same act of stereotyping in other groups I see around me every day.

     You are those radicals. You are not as extreme and violent but still leave just as lasting of an impact. You are the face of the gay community. When you speak out, be careful what you say. With your vibrant activism, you leave an impression about your cause and your community with every person that sees you. Is what you say really fair to those that are quieter and less assertive members of the homosexual community? When you speak out and “make a difference,” you are actually shutting your audience out. Those who do not agree with the homosexual lifestyle are called “primitive,” “intolerant,” and “homophobic.”

Do you even know what homophobic means? 

     Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines Homophobic as an “irrational fear of…homosexuality or homosexuals.” Just because someone doesn’t feel the same about the subject as you, doesn’t always mean they are homophobic. I know there are people out there that do fit this definition, but this word is overly-used and often incorrectly-used as well.

     Realize that your word choice can be the factor that determines whether you help or hurt the cause. You can feel free to speak your voice, but realize you can’t get upset when others exercise their rights as well. If you deserve the rights to state your opinions so does anybody else.

    The Constitution clearly states in the first amendment that, “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech.” This doesn’t just apply to minorities. Everyone has this right, including those that do not feel the same way about homosexuality. For you to be angry with those who oppose your views speaking out while you feel free to speak your mind is like a raven attacking an eagle for flying.


     Don’t have double standards. One of the biggest issues I see in the approaches to further gay rights and acceptance is activists thinking that they are given special right to present their opinions freely, while those opinions contradicting pro-homosexual views are not as acceptable. When you are wearing a shirt saying, “I’m gay and I’m proud,” it is inspirational, yet if someone were to wear an identical shirt but changes the word gay to straight, suddenly the shirt is supremacist and offensive. These are the type of double standards that cause minds to callous to these newer gay rights ideas.



      Don’t be these things. You are better. You have the tools to present your ideas in effective ways. Don’t fall victim to the distorted idea that the only way you can promote gay acceptance is through protests, arguments, and guilt-trips.

     Those that tell you to…
     Come out! Stand out! Shout out!

     These are the people that try to bring you down. The ones that don’t respect you. The ones that treat you like you are different.

     Don’t live fighting for a cause with no change to prove it. Make a difference.