Rainbow

Homo, Queer, Fruit, Lesbo, Fag, Dyke, Nancy are some of the imprecations that are hurled at in the presence of or used to dehumanize an LGBT person in their absence.

The contempt and loathing people harbor for the LGBTQ community is both sickening and astounding. Sickening because of the sheer strength of the emotion (hate) they possess and astounding because so many of us espouse this visceral antipathy. The gentrified term society came up with to encapsulate this all-pervasive bigotry is called ‘Homophobia’.

We all know that since time immemorial any radical departure from societal norms, propounding of iconoclastic views or exhibition of deviant behavior has been met with vitriol and persecution. Organized religion has invariably been the leading skeptic and the chief opponent to any challenge to its definition of normal. It has also been the inciter-in-chief to its faithful flock against those that have challenged its established diktats. So what has happened is that our minds have been conditioned over time to believe that only one version of truth exists and any deviation from that is abnormal, unholy, ungodly, subhuman and something that needs to be banished from the realm of thought and society. These constructs have both consciously and subconsciously been passed down from generation to generation and reinforced by way of epithets that have been used from time to time by our parents, relatives or friends to describe people or things that have been considered aberrant in the eyes of organized religion. Therefore, for most of us this is a ‘natural conditioned reflex’ when we discuss homosexuality or meet an LGBTQ person.

I believe though that human beings innately are reformers. Their views change as they use the light of education and rational analysis to dispel the darkness of ignorance and prejudice. History is replete with examples of human beings breaking free of the shackles of religious decree and societal prejudices to incinerate many a social evil using the fuel of education and rationality in the funeral pyre of social reform.

That being said, it completely confounds me that even in todays world the educated, evolved, mature, rational, logical and progressive human still clings to this regressive and abhorrent social construct! It amazes me further that the very people who evangelize science so passionately and indoctrinate their kids with gusto with the virtues of science are so repulsed by homosexuality and are  staunchly opposed to the idea of same sex marriage (legal union of two people of the same sex). It won’t be surprising at all if we were to start peeling layers off of their belief system only to discover that an LGBTQ person qualifies as subhuman in their estimation. This would then explain this discrimination and aversion. Many feel that homosexuality can be cured by medical science as if it were a virus or bacterial infection! Others feel it is a fad that impressionable minds embrace and one that can be shed off at a moment’s notice like a piece of clothing or jazzy hair color that can be dyed back to a natural hue! How in the world can people who swear by medical science refuse to believe that gay and lesbian brothers and sisters are mother nature’s gift and that it is not a choice! Becoming an artist, doctor, journalist, football player, lawyer are choices; being born a homosexual is not.

Last but not least, a shout out to those who self identify as Liberals and yet doggedly oppose the idea of same sex marriage. Look into the mirror peeps!