Well, homosexuality. What a topic. At our first blog meeting I raised this as a topic to write about and as you can imagine, everyone was kinda hesitant. It’s not because everyone didn’t have an opinion on it or didn’t think it was a good idea, it’s just a difficult topic to write about. It’s a topic that always attracts scrutiny and in many places is taboo, and is considered not worthy to discuss. But we can’t just acknowledge something and then ignore it, it’s important to discuss topics, no matter how big they are.
Now this blog post isn’t about wether or not being gay is wrong or right, because everyone has their own opinions. Instead it’s about how we should treat people.
You see, I personally don’t agree with homosexuality and when you say that to someone they usually think ‘Oh here we go. Another gay hater’ but that’s not true. Just because you don’t agree with something doesn’t mean you have to hate people who do agree with it. I don’t hate homosexual people and I don’t hate heterosexual people who agree with the act of homosexuality either. There’s a misconception that most situations in life come down to hate versus love. That’s so not true. You see I have gay friends and probably gay relatives, but I don’t love any of them any less because they're gay. Sure, I may not agree with their actions, but that doesn’t stop me from loving them. And I’m not trying to sound like an ‘all-loving’ hippie, who believes in peace between everyone in the world, I’m just trying to say that if you disagree with someones sexuality, you don’t have to hate the person for it.
Homophobe is a word that I reckon 99% of Australian high schoolers have heard. Dictionary.com describes a homophobe as "a person who fears or hates homosexuality and homosexuals". This word is thrown around a lot at high school: "Oh stop being such a homophobe" or "You’re so homophobic," but like most high school slang, it’s hardly ever used in the right context. If you were to hear the term used at school or work, it usually implies that someone finds a situation uncomfortable, that someone doesn’t want to appear or become gay. When evidently the term is a lot harsher.
You see a homophobic is a person that hates gay people, there’s no way around that detail, but the word ‘fear’ is used in the explanation of the word for a reason. Homophobic behavior isn’t just an outward reaction, it’s an inward reaction as well. It’s not surprising that a Homophobe is quite often described as someone who is scared of being turned gay. But why am I saying all this?
I guess I just want to say that Homosexuality isn’t something that should be feared, because fear always leads to something worse, like anger or hate. And even if you don’t agree with homosexuality or the idea of homosexual marriage, that doesn’t mean you should discriminate or act in hatred against homosexual people. Not choosing fear doesn’t mean you have to throw away your morality, it just means you’re acknowledging everyone as a human being and showing love to anyone.
And sure at times it’s really hard to display love to those who have different views and opinions than our own, but that’s no excuse. We shouldn’t judge or hate people just because we disagree with them. Everyones human and we all deserve to be treated with kindness. And this message doesn't just apply to everyone heterosexual people as homosexual people need to show kindness to people who share different opinions as well.
In closing, I’m not trying to say that everyone should agree with homosexuality, because we all have very different opinions and I don’t agree with it myself. But disagreement isn’t an excuse for hatred.
