Some quick links to remind you that if we do become extinct as a species...

[sparkindarkness]

...It may not actually be a bad thing.



Vatican Homosexuals are not welcome in Vatican city </> Wow, knew you didn’t like us but we’re not actually welcome in the ‘country’ at all? Ah feeling that sweet Christian love right there.

More loving values from the American Family Association that wants to ban Muslims from the military. They spread that hate far and wide!

In a shocking display of inhumanity Rhode Island Governor Don Carcieri has vetoed a bill that would have allowed homosexuals to plan the funeral arrangements of their deceased partners and have their bodies released to the surviving partner. Is there a prize for being spiteful, mean and pure evil? Because I can’t see why anyone else would want to do this?! He wants to exclude gay people from their partner’s FUNERAL ARRANGEMENTS?! That’s evil. It weas prompted by a man who had to fight tooth and nail to actually have the funeral of his partner of 17 years What kind of evil bastard wants to perpetuate this?!

Frankly why are these things even up for the vote?! It’s ludicrous that human rights are up to any kind of voting process... it completely undermines the very concept of rights! Can’t they see the dangerous precedent they’ve set? ANY minority is vulnerable from this - all it takes is a sufficient majority disliking you enough and your ‘rights’ are GONE.

Why is this not scaring people?

Comments

[recessional]

It IS scaring . . . .the people who are on our side.

The people who are NOT on our side DO NOT SEE OR BELIEVE IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM that WE ARE A LEGITIMATE MINORITY. They class us as "sexual deviants". In their eyes, classing us as a "minority" would BE LIKE classing paedophiles as a minority.

They are seeing a completely different equation than we are.

Obviously, I think they're wrong. But it makes perfect sense, as long as you stand where they are standing.

[sparkindarkness]

It's frightening to see it - because they don't see us as PEOPLE, let alone a minority. They hate us that much and to such a reconcileable degree.

Because they won't listen and they won't learn. And I worry that the only way we'll be free of them is to wait until they die - since they tend to be the older generation. But we can't wait for that - we really can't.

I think it really is a case of "past them or through them." Maybe the GBLT movement has been playing too nice for too long.

[recessional]

*shrugs* Wars are best fought when strategy drives tactics, rather than the other way around. Different plays are appropriate for different times.

Some of them - a lot of them - actually do see us as people. They just see us as DISORDERED people. They see us as people the same way you or I (I would hope) see the paranoid schizophrenic who thinks martians are telling him to kill his family as a person: just, he is a person with a dangerous disorder that requires treatment, not a wholesale search for the transmitters that are sending the homicidal messages to his brain. Others don't see us as people in the same way they don't see MOST people they've never met or interacted with as people - and I would argue this is most of humanity.

Sometimes, the appropriate tactic is "lead, follow, get the fuck out of my way or be ground under". Other times it's "by the way, did you know I'm queer, mom?" Other times it's "here, see this medical information that proves this isn't a disorder."

Strategy drives tactics, not the other way around. But to develop an adequate strategy, it is necessary to know a) what the enemy is doing and b) why they are doing it, and it really HELPS to know c) what they think about it, and us.

[sparkindarkness]

The thing is, to me there is a point when ignorance becomes ignorant and willfull in and of itself

There is a level of ignorance that can only exist because of unwillingness to let go of bigotry. The preponderance of evidence pointing towards the unchanging and natural element of homosexuality

The problem I have is that, with all this evidence out there that they're already ignoring then we can present more - and they will still ignore it. Hate trumps knowledge.

Some can be reached - I hope a majority. But I despair because there's no excuse for this ignorance. And if they are STILL this ignorant there must be some element of willfully ignorance. Either they hate us that much or are too stuck under the influence of hateful people or organiations. I can only hope for a wake up moment for them (like a close family member coming out)

[recessional]

But I despair because there's no excuse for this ignorance.

Fear. Of the nebulous, angst-filled, "is the world going to open up and swallow me/does God hate me/[pick your weird thing here]." Fear of change, fear of not knowing that the Absolutes Are, fear of losing their major grounding in the universe.

Fear of being wrong, and losing the social face that comes with being wrong. Fear that questioning one aspect of their beliefs in the world makes all of them invalid, and means that they'll lose something.

Which is not an excuse, because, well, I don't make excuses. These people are ranged on the other side of a war from me, and I will do what I need to, to make damn sure me and mine are safe. I'm not a pacifist, and my religion doesn't call for turning the other cheek.

But it does call for being a sneaky bastard, defining your goals, and getting what you actually want, and for strategy focused on that desire to be the driving force behind the tactics I choose to employ. And what intelligence and information I use to adapt those tactics.

And for that, I really, really need to understand my enemy. Not because this understanding makes him right, or is magic, but because then I know which battles to pick, and how to fight them.

For instance, there are definitely people and groups with whom the "this is the tyranny of the majority over a minority and you? you are ALSO a frigging minority in the eyes of the majority, and they think you're subhuman TOO" will work with.

And then there's groups and people it won't. But one's gotta know which group one is dealing with when.

[sparkindarkness]

That's the problem - fear feeds the ignorance that supports the fear.

I can underestand what motivates them - but not them not taking advantage of the resources that are out there to both dispell their fear and remove their ignorance. That's why it comes under willfully and inexcusable ignorance.

What I do hope is that information will break it down - bombarding it, exposure to it and us. More people, more knowledge, more chances to wake up. And there's a lot of information we can use - as I've said to many people on the whole "let's vote for rights" do you REALLY want to go there? Really