The Adventures of the Boi Wonder: Fear and Humoring

We have all been humored by our friends and family in some regard. We first encounter it in childhood, done harmlessly by our parents, like when a 5 year old crawls around under the table barking, deciding that she’s a dog and wants to eat from a bowl on the floor without utensils. The parents might indulge the child’s request, hoping she’ll quickly get tired of being a dog before company comes to visit… or before she starts peeing in shoes. We get used to this invalidating treatment, and those close to us continue to use humoring as a method of reverse-psychology or dealing with a behavior they don’t understand/agree with without hurting us. Think of the movie Lars and the Real Girl, and how the brother and sister-in-law pretend Bianca is real.

It follows us into adulthood too, especially for people like us with so-called “alternative lifestyles.” Average situation: You come out of the closet to your friends and family. There are those who are cool with this, even supportive. There are those who are uneasy, outright hate it, or pretend the fact doesn’t exist. Then there are the people whose acceptance is for show, secretly hoping that this newly realized fact about you is just another youthful phase.

Read more at: The New Gay!

Nuts, Guns, Fear & God: What the Right is Made Of

I run across Right-Wing blogs on a daily basis.  Some are filled with hate and intolerance, some are just plain funny.  Many of them seem to feed on fear.  The Right in general has this connection to fear.  Fear of God, fear of the Left, fear of change.  As I’ve said before, hate is caused by fear, fear is from the unknown, the unknown is ignorance and ignorance is bliss.  Now before you start screaming that I’m simply calling those who are part of Right-Wing society blissfully ignorant fear and hate mongers, I do want to point out I am speaking in general terms, which typically I avoid doing.  After all, I think in terms of the Right and Left (and almost anything else in life) as part of a continuum. Some will fall as far right as possible, and in turn, a few will land over on the extreme Left, but 95% of the population will fall somewhere in between with some leaning Right, some leaning Left and some Right in the middle.

But I will say I have found many parallels in Right Wing blogs. Those consistent elements that appear time and time again (which make me glad I’m l left leaner).

There is a great deal of intolerance from the Right. If you believe in a woman’s choice, you condone murder. If you believe sexuality is not a choice, and all people should have equal rights, then you are an atheist (let’s not forget about the priest who refused communion to anyone that voted for Obama because of these issues).

If you believe in any type of gun control, your unpatriotic (including keeping illegal semi-auto and automatic weapons off the street) and if your anything other than Christian (let’s keep in mind Christianity is NOT the majority religion, nor has it the longest history) then you are definitely a threat to the world (I wonder how the world made it before Christianity?).

Yet, it’s the Right, who loves to point the finger at the Left accusing the other side of intolerance, hate and bigotry. Now I realize no one wants to be wrong, but, the more I read from the right, the further away from the Right I tend to lean.

One site I found, called Political Pistachio, is a great representation of what the Right is and stands for, as it is a truly inclusive site.  That is it includes all the elements of the right and what makes the Right….well, WRONG!

On this site, you’ll find a great deal of fear and intolerance. Not only for the LGBT community, but for those of different faiths, including Jews. You’ll find a blatant prejudice against Muslims, and basically anyone that doesn’t live in America (or was born here). You’ll find prejudice against those who don’t speak English. You’ll find guns, many references to God and Jesus, and you’ll find a virtual war against liberals or anyone who doesn’t live in fear of things different from them. You’ll find links to sites such as “Christians against Leftist”, “Gunz Roll Call”, and “The Liberals are Wrong” (you get the picture), and you’ll also find a great deal of rhetoric about “The American Way”.

For me, the “American Way” is tolerance, inclusion, and the understanding we all come from somewhere. Let’s face it, if you’re not Native American, you came from somewhere else. I never understood how the Right is able to equate being American to being a white Christian.

I firmly believe in learning from those things I encounter in life, whether positive or negative, so here I take away a lesson. The lesson here, what I don’t want to be. I don’t want to be intolerant, so I accept the Right as part of the population, but I don’t “hate” them because I don’t agree with them. I’m not straight, but I don’t want to oppress straight people…and yes, the thought of straight people in the bedroom is unsettling to me as well, so I don’t think about what straight people do in bed.

I don’t want to change the Constitution to prevent consenting, law abiding, tax paying adults from having equal rights, (whereas the Right, who claims to fight for the preservation of the Constitution, advocates changing it to do just that) so I don’t want to be a hypocrite.

I don’t want people to, and I don’t want to live in fear…of anything.

So, lesson learned from the Right? Thank you for showing me what I don’t want to be. Thank you for providing me with motivation and inspiration to be a better person, accepting all differences, and thank you for showing my the ugliness of injecting race and religion into politics…and thank you mostly for reminding me we are the human race, and we all share this world together.

Understanding the Anti-Gay

When you picture someone who opposes GLBT rights, what do you see? Fred Phelps and his ridiculous homemade signs? Perhaps a finger-wagging politician talking about ‘family values’? Or a minister bemoaning the rise of “sodomy” in America? All good examples, but here’s the ugliest face of all, the face of the middle-road homophobe:

“I think the voters were thinking, well, if it makes them happy, why shouldn’t we let gay couples get married. And I think we made them realize that there are broader implications to society and particularly the children when you make that fundamental change that’s at the core of how society is organized, which is marriage,” -Jeff Flint, Chief Strategist for Proposition 8, a measure banning gay marriage in California.

Look at the language there. “Let gay couples,” because fundamental liberties are a gift from the breeding class? “Made them realize,” which is a fine way of saying “terrorized with visions of churches being shut-down for not performing gay marriages.” And of course “fundamental change,” because change is bad and something to be feared. Interracial marriage was once seen as something that was once seen as a “fundamental change” to marriage that would have “broad implications” for children and society.

To be fair, they were right about interracial marriage. The most resounding impact was felt last night, when the son of a Black man and a white woman became president of the United States.

Let’s hope it won’t take generations for the children of GLBT couples.

From boinkology.com.