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I can vaguely remember when the whole “gay thing” became an issue. Everyone knew that homosexuality had been around probably as long as people had, but it started to be something that was in the news as people decided that they were tired of being “in the closet” and started making themselves known. It was pretty bad for a while, people were going crazy, like it was some kind of contagious disease or something.
Violence against gays spiked for a time, it was truly horrific. I really thought that it was going to die down after a while. Even finding out that celebrities I loved like Freddy Mercury and Rob Halford were gay seemed no big deal to me, nor did the lesbian girls in middle school. I guess I was different even as a kid. Once we started getting evidence that homosexuality was genetic and not just a matter of choice, I was certain that the hoopla would die off. Unfortunately, I was wrong.
To this day I still see news of abuse against homosexuals. Not long ago I saw a video of a trans-person being kicked and beaten in a fast food establishment. Recently I heard of a man who was beaten to death when locals found out he was gay. Stories about the “rape the gay away” movement have made me cringe and cry. I do not understand how people can still be this way.
Maybe decades ago people weren’t thinking about homosexuality, and as heterosexuals, it frightened and disturbed them. It was strange and hard to understand. I get that. What I don’t get, and will never get, is that anyone thought it was okay to beat, rape or kill someone for being different. Just because it’s not your cup of tea doesn’t give you the right to harm another human being. Ever. There’s just no excuse for it. There’s even less excuse for it now, when we know so much more and it’s out in the open.
I wonder sometimes, if it weren’t for the antiquated beliefs of organized religion, would there still be these crimes against the LGBTQ community? Things change, nature changes, and no one can definitively say that it’s not all part of god’s plan. The words people follow are very old; it’s completely possible, and even highly probable, that they’re wrong or no longer applicable. It’s also strange to me that people claim that god is love and to love each other, while simultaneously teaching generation after generation to hate and inflict harm on those who do not conform.
Really though, whether this is a religious problem or not, it’s surely a societal problem. We each have the ability to choose for ourselves what we think and how we act. We are responsible for our actions, and when we choose to harm people who are different, that speaks to something deeply broken within those individuals. A healthy mind could never think that beating or raping or murdering someone is a good solution. A healthy mind could never look on as people are abused and killed and do nothing.
People are what they are, and love is love. We need to realize that and stop looking for more reasons to hate and kill each other. If you hate gays or others of different sexuality, you need to take a long look inside yourself and figure out what’s broken, then fix it. Hate is not a healthy or natural state. Wishing harm on another is not okay. Figure out what your issues are, and get them sorted before society gets any worse than it already is.
