When I hear the infamous "Make America Great Again," among the many things I first think of is that people would actually give an arm and a leg to reverse same-sex marriage. But I am not here to spread any sort of shade toward unapologetically right-winged views and how people love to share them at others' expense. In fact, I want this article to be swallowed more tastefully, as I'm not intending to make anyone feel uncomfortable or singled out. I'm here for those who have been silenced for too long.
Several months ago I made a very emotional Facebook post saying that anyone who was homophobic could not be religious, as they were contradicting themselves. I made many references to the Bible and truly outdid myself, because before I knew it, it was brought to my attention that somebody on my Facebook friend's list was offended by my post. I was very hurt as I didn't intend to upset anyone and later took it down. But why would someone openly admit that they are offended by a post saying that you cannot be religious and homophobic? Why would anyone admit to being homophobic? Anyway, they seemed to think that the post was very personal and took offense to it, and here is why it was so "personal":I am bisexual.
I therefore understand homophobia all too well and have felt victimized and hurt and mistreated just like any homosexual person. I do not feel the need to explain myself or "come out" to everyone because of the fact that I am attracted to most humans and think everyone is beautiful. I don't sleep around and I don't hate on any other person or any type of relationship, therefore I don't accept any negativity on the matter in my life. It hasn't been particularly difficult of a concept for me to swallow, but has actually been one of the only things in my life that have ever made sense, and I accept it about myself.
But what exactly is it that bothers me the most on the issue? Definitely the select group of Christians who will come around with the Bible under their arm like it's a rule book and try to throw it at my face. It's hurtful and pointless as I am just as connected to my religion now as I have been my entire life. It's funny that homosexuality is the one that bothers people most when there are 600+ sins mentioned in the Bible and they choose the one that involves no hatred, or violence at all but is strictly about love. Love between two people and nobody else. It actually has nothing to do with them and doesn't hurt or effect them in any way.
"It's unnatural."
Yes, well there are many unnatural things going on in the world today, but this is no threat to the human race. It took Adam and Eve alone to get the human race started, so if every single person became a homosexual, I think we could depend on at least two people to keep making babies, right? (Although, the way we are treating the planet, we, as a human race, will be wiped out before any issue like that ever comes up.)
"But the Bible says it's a sin"
The Bible does not put it in any human being's hands the right to condemn others for being homosexual. In fact, it doesn't have any concept of homosexual relationships in today's guidelines as we are more advanced with it. The real bible verses to pay attention to are:
"You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things." - Romans 2:1-3
"For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." - John 3:17
"Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling." -1 Peter 4:8-9
So now that we've established that you can't hide behind your religion to justify your marginalizing same-sex relationships, why are we doing it? It is understandable to think of yourself being with a person of the same sex and be rather repulsed, and it's the same for homosexuals to imagine themselves sexually being with the opposite sex. To put it simply, we are repulsed by the idea of sexual attraction between people whom we don't understand the attraction. Such as a young person imagining a couple of senior citizens engaging in a sexual relationship and may be repulsed. And we've all at one point been repulsed by the idea of our parents sexual history. But does this condone spreading hatred toward anyone? It doesn't.
If you're religious and are having trouble understanding, that's OK! You're not supposed to understand something like this, but you are expected to accept it as part of society. The biggest thing we should be taking from Jesus is love. It was what he preached and represented above all. All of the nitty gritty sins and whatnot are simply something we should be keeping in the back of our minds as a loose template for what kind of person we should be... not breaking it down to every little detail and reading into it and into it. As long as you are loving to others, do some sort of charity, never intentionally hurt anyone, and above all make others feel loved, you are doing everything fine.
So homophobia is invalid...how? It is a concept based solely on the idea of condemning the relationship between two people because you don't feel the same way. OK... so if you're not Muslim are we condoning Islamphobia? This needs to come to an end.