I have been noticing recently that many of the posts on the forum touch on the huge number of people out there who still hate us and think we're the scum of the earth. Posts mention political figures and discuss how they're not doing enough to support the gays (often by not performing some act like voicing their support for parades, gay marriage, etc.), and they discuss the occasional gay bashing or the latest stunt performed by our 'friends' from Topeka. Since I have left home for school, my experience has been that the VAST majority of young people have been either openly supportive of or passively indifferent to gay people. I go to school in Houston, so it's not like I picked a hot bed of hippy activity as my random sample of the population. It really seems to me that the majority of people, or at least young people, really don't give a crap who you love. Am I wrong? Is it possible that, instead of people not supporting gays, people just aren't aware of how popular supporting gays has become? I refuse to believe that every politician who refuses to stand behind universal gay marriage does so because he or she is a bigoted zealot. It seems more likely to me that they do so because they don't want to upset their constituents because they have an inflated sense of how many people still disagree with homosexuality. People are afraid that by standing in support of homosexual initiatives like gay marriage, they will offend people who disagree with it. Because the few people who do starkly disagree with homosexuality tend to voice their opinion so publicly and frequently, it creates the illusion that far more people stand against us than actually do. I bring this up because I lived the first 21 years of my life terrified that I would be killed for being gay if I told anyone, and it has occurred to me that I've never really encountered anyone (yet) who simply hates me because of the frankly trivial characteristic that I'm homosexual. Long OP short, is it really as bad as we and the media make it out to be?
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Right wing politicians gain more from galvanizing an anti-gay base than they lose from any potentially alienated moderates. That's the entire point of wedge politics.
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So does that mean that there are more radicals than moderates, or does that mean that the moderates aren't so easily swayed as to change their opinion because they may disagree with the politicians on one social issue?
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I think it really depends very much on where you live.
In larger and/or more liberal cities I'd say that you are correct in that the majority of people (particularly young people) are supportive of gays (or at least are not anti-gay).
But in conservative areas/smaller towns/or outside big cities (ie: the suburbs) then I'd tend to say/think that's not so much the case, there's allot more dislike of "anything gay"
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Musicman, I grew up as a gay teen in the late 70-s early 80's, the fear of dying/being murdered for being gay was very real back then and although it is a time best forgotten, I guess a lot still remember and I dare hazard to guess that there are still areas where this could happen...Alabama? and there is still cultures that will kill gays...Middle East?
As for politicians...weren't they told in the 70's that if they didn't do anything about the drug epidemic that society would pay for it in the future and they did nothing about it in the 70's and are now panicing to control drugs 30 years later. Politician simply do not believe that prevention is better than cure because in the here and now, prevention is far to expensive...then 30 years later they wonder why cure is sooooo damn expensive and ineffective.
Politicians are only there to play games...they DO NOT and HAVE NOT represented their people for decades, and they never will in the forseeable future because they have to be seen doing what they think is the popular thing, not the right thing...the spineless turds.
Is it really THAT bad? No I don't think so...but there ARE pockets that ARE still that bad, and like you said, idiots voices are louder.
A lot of people in general are very supportive and understanding of gays and lesbians, as an openly gay man, it has been a long time since I have been homophobically abused...but the small amount of time that I have been homophobically abused certainly stick with me the most and I do cringe is a degree of fear when I hear any raised agressive voices shouting 'Poofter', 'Queer' etc....it's instinct.
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dfiant is right on the money how I ended up in Oklahoma as an atheist gay friendly equal rights supporter no one will ever know.
can't wait to move haha
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Really good question musicman and I have had alot of irony in the past year and this subject has come up.
I am closest politically to a Democratic Socialist (in other words I am FAR left) and I was surprised to find in the past year that maybe 75% of my friends...the ones I hang out with and socialize with the most... are conservative Republicans. :confused:I thought it was really odd that we were supposed to hate each other but I have nothing but respect for them as people and I respect their right to their politics and opinions and I get the same in return from them. It led me to a conclusion that we are all being systematically pitted against each other because if you look around at the media we are all at each other's throats....and while we are all fighting (or so it seems)...the richest 20% of the population owns 80% of the wealth...we are on our way to becoming a Banana Republic.
These same conservative Republicans are all VERY supportive of my relationship...very kind and compassionate people actually as a rule...gay is not an issue for any of them. This is odd because I figured that I didnt know ANY Republicans for many years because I am a gay leftie (and unapologetic about it)...and because I don't live in a cave and am exposed to the media 24/7. I assumed I was in a cultural and political war zone.
It is true that gay marriage is a wedge issue and you can pretty much figure out by their tone if they actually oppose it or are playing to their base...and it is also true that we are being pitted against each other..it is a page out of KKKarl Rove's playbook.
It is helpful to remember sometimes that the people who are screaming the loudest only represent themselves as individuals. I have to remind myself alot that this is the case.
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