HOMOPHOBIA

[Grazee]

For the past few weeks I've been entertaining myself viewing gay short story videos on You Tube. Sadly, many of the stories deal with the trauma of coming out. The most common thread is fear, and is predominant among young people, who have to endure the process of coming out.

You've all been through it, so I don’t have to elaborate on the anguish and pain that coming out causes.

It's all so unnecessary.

I've revised my bucket list. I have only two things I want to occur before I'm taken to that great big steam room in the sky;

First; I want Australia to be a Republic and, most importantly

Second: I want a ZERO tolerance policy towards Homophobia including and specifically, religious references
and beliefs. I want to see Homophobia categorized as a criminal offense carrying a mandatory custodial sentence of at least Ten years. Homophobia causes pain and suffering; it victimizes people. Therefore it falls well within the classification as a crime.

Just imagine a world without homophobia; just imagine no more ranting religious bigots selectively using extracts from the bible to
cover up their homophobic prejudice; just imagine how happy we and our families would be; just imagine a life without homophobic fear; just imagine!

I don't believe this can be accomplished soon, but we can start by making it plain to anyone expressing Homophobic beliefs, in any
form, that we regard them as criminals.

[PatT]

Hi Grazee,

Your utopian vision of a world that does not discriminate or judge based upon on sexual preference at all is something I would love to see as well. I'm a heterosexual male and I openly criticise homophobia where it occurs on social media but I still feel we're a long way off from ameliorating the issue entirely. I feel like there's a steadily declining gradient of antagonism & judgement towards firstly women (as the feminist movement picked up pace before the push for gay rights), then gay/lesbian and finally transgender/intersex in that order.

In such a vein, misogyny still exists, although largely swept under the rug or wrongly contrived and thrust onto issues to give them brevity to be criticised. Gay rights follows a few decades behind those happenings and while we live in Australia and experience a relative degree of sexual freedom, we still exist half within the conservative church-laden ethical stances of the baby boomers and half within the millenials that acknowledge the flaws of the previous generation and try to rectify them. I feel like as the baby boomers slowly disappear, homophobia will decline with it but remain predominantly in rural Australia and amongst low-SES portions of the population.

The transgender/intersex issue is going to be miles behind that in terms of acceptance. A ridiculous world we live in.

[white knight]

Hi Grazee, good to hear from you again.

Pat t said " I feel like as the baby boomers slowly disappear, homophobia will decline with it "

Totally agree. I'm a baby boomer. 60yo. I've previously mentioned my air force days in the 70's and the homophobia that went with that era them days. Paranoia gang mentality really. It was those times, it went with life and as ashamed as I am now I know in my heart that one can't be 100% responsible for trends that happened when one was 18yo and influenced so much.

What followed that period was the reverse. As a 21yo prison officer I took a different view towards the plight of transgender,gay prisoners. I was rewarded personally with their warmth and friendship but of course frowned upon by older guards.

The point I'm making is that evolution takes time. If society can't be rushed to improve itself, then ones dreams of change needs to be adjusted so it is at least realistic. If its realistic then achievement can be realised and celebrated. Then more dreams and campaigns to fulfill dreams can be planned even beyond your day when you reach that steam room.

Eg. Criminalising homophobia in my view won't happen. People will just hold onto their tongues. The better thing has already evolved that society frowns upon even demonizes discrimination associated with the gay community. That snowball is growing rapidly. Baby boomers are correctly symbolised as the last generation to pigeon hole people IMO.

So fine tuning your projects would benefit you and your community better. Imprisoning offenders has other issues. Eg the children spouses and family of the caged also pay for his/her sentence. Do we want that? How many judges (if legislation passed) would hand down a custodial sentence?

I admire your dreams. Homophobic people are in the minority now thank goodness. It is so due to the efforts of the gay rights movement of the 70's, such brave souls.

By keeping your efforts better targeted and in best perspective, you'll add to their legacy.

Society is a steam roller. You can't make it go faster. But you can steer it in a better direction.

Tony WK

[White_Rose]

Hello Grazee

I am a little puzzled by your wish list. Given my ideal life I would like to see all forms of discrimination disappear. You cannot punish people to make them change their minds, as it never works. Think of all the attempts in various forms, holocaust, women, right to life movements, child abuse etc. They all have something to complain about. So why not practice love and care toward everyone. Picking one group in society for affirmative action can also be seen as discriminatory.

Your point that it is the church that promotes these attitudes is not correct. Yes, many church people see homosexuality as wrong, but so do a great many more people who have no affiliation with any church. Picking a perpetrator and victim and insisting this is the most important facet of life is, to say the least, short sighted. Why not put your efforts into creating a world where all people are free of discrimination, where we live side by side in goodwill towards everyone.

You cannot force people to change their beliefs by threatening them with dire retribution. You complain about the attitude of the church, but it has had its share of oppression and come through because of its principles.

Community attitude towards migrants is very ordinary. Why not take up that challenge? You obviously have strong concerns about those who identify as homosexual. Does this apply to others who identify as lesbian, bi, trans, intersex as well? Attitudes are changing and maybe you will not see a complete transformation in your lifetime. I would love to see a world without crime, where no one needs to lie and steal, no need for violent acts and war. I doubt it will happen in my lifetime but if I can see the start of of such a wonderful change I will be happy.

Instead of thinking how to brutalise people, work on how to pass on your message in peace.

Mary

[Grazee]

Hi Mary . . . thanks for taking the time to review my post. From your general comments I take it that you're a christian. Regretfully, as long as Christianity trots out references to Leviticus and others condemning Homosexuality then Christianity is my enemy. It is completely homophobic and I believe it will not change . . . it is the source of Homophobia and all I'm trying to do is make a start in advocating a ZERO tolerance to Homophobia.

Christianity has no concept of the pain it causes in its condemnation.

[Grazee]

I'm aware that evolution takes time but whilst we're waiting for Homophobia to gain universal acceptance there will be more victims; more pain; more suicides and more violence. For Gay people It's Time to take a stance to allay any future trauma. We in the LGBTI community owe it to our future brothers and sisters to make sure they do not suffer as we have done.

Personally, I have taken a Zero tolerance to any form of Homophobia; whether I'm alone I care not. At least I'm making a start.

[justinok]

Hey Grazee, I think I've talked to you before on some of your other threads, from memory you're a bit older than me, so this is going to probably sound a bit dumb... but, in terms of gay people taking a stand to "allay future trauma". Some of us are actually just pretty tired. I'm only in my 30s, and I know I live in a way better world than people twice my age, but I have enough issues in my life being HIV positive, trying to find my way in relationships, and I just can't be bothered educating others. The 13 year old kid who killed himself in Brisbane after being homophobicly bullied the other week just broke me. I just don't know what else I personally can do. Locking up homophobes does not seem a feasible solution to me.

As for relgiion, I'm not even going to go there because it'll cause a crapstorm. We all know that marriage equality would be legal in Australia right now if it weren't for the right wing Christians controlling the Libs, and before that labour.