Thursday, March 5, 2015

Maybe I'm naive but ...

I recently read an online post from someone who is transgender. They met someone they hadn't seen in years who then told the person they were with the poster's business.

To me, this is bullying in a mild form, but still bullying. That person had no right to even mention it or comment on it. Let alone do it for shock value.

I am tired of seeing posts from people who are subjected to this type of bullying. To me, things like gender status, race, religion, sexual orientation or creed are less important than character. If you're a good person, then I don't care what the colour of your skin is.

Conversely, I also see posts where people 'play the race card' as if that entitles them to special treatment. It should not. Frankly, my colour does not do me any favours. I certainly don't have it better than any person of another colour from mine.

I consider myself to be open-minded. I have a friend who is gay and he is the loveliest man you could ever hope to meet. The reason I'm friends with him has nothing to do with his sexual orientation. He is not effeminate and certainly does not announce his orientation to all and sundry. He is a genuinely nice person to be around.

I have another friend who is of a different race than mine. She once made a joke about it to me but I didn't comment about it at the time. Because I never saw the colour of her skin. As my friend above, it has nothing to do with why I'm friends with her. I'm her friend because I genuinely like her.

What prompted this post is an article I read which I find difficult to take seriously on one hand, but am absolutely horrified at what this person has proposed. I have no idea whether the article is real as it seems rather outrageous.

This person proposed shooting all gay people in the head. Yes, this was advocating cold-blooded murder because according to them, it was an affront against God. If I was a horrible person, and this particular proposal was true, I would be asking for the same treatment of anyone who engenders hate such as this, but I'm not a horrible person and I can only pity such a person who clearly has no compassion.

I am not deeply religious. I haven't read the Bible page to page, so I have no idea whether there is actually a passage condemning these types of relationships. I do believe it is a subject which is open to interpretation and people interpret different things based on their own biases.

There is no easy solution to this. I know that this kind of hate exists in all cultures. It would be easy for me to say we should all just get along, but it isn't that easy. We're not born hating other people for their choices; it's something we're taught.

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