3 Ways to Behave Around Gay People if You Don't Accept Them

Contents:

• HOW TO BEHAVE AROUND GAY PEOPLE IF YOU DON'T ACCEPT THEM
• DO GOD HATE GAYS / HOMOSEXUALS?
• 25 THGS I HATE ABOUT BEG A GAY MAN
• 10 ANTI-GAY MYTHS DEBUNKED

HOW TO BEHAVE AROUND GAY PEOPLE IF YOU DON'T ACCEPT THEM

In an environment of growg acceptance, we nmn homophobic feelgs, particularly men, bee we thk they e om si the dividual and are th his full rponsibily. However, the ntued existence of homophobia—spe the obv downsis—rais qutns about s basic nature: Do psychologil theori like those above really expla why gayns, specifilly, evok such fear, the kd that n sometim even lead to vlent speech and actn?

The only way to answer the qutns is to stop thkg of homophobia as a personal choice and unrstand as the evable and liberate rult of the culture which Amerin men are raised. Put another way, the zero-tolerance le means that if a man mak one “wrong” move—kiss another man a moment of dnken fun, say—he is immediately assumed to be gay. We don’t hear about gay men disverg an tert women later life, and we rarely believe men when they say they are bisexual—the mon, if erroneo, wisdom is that any man who says he is bi is really jt gay and hasn’t admted yet.

Even if relign and Esquire didn’t teach men to be sred of each other’s bodi, they would still be aaid of the way a bsh wh gayns n so sudnly erase the rt of their sexualy. High-schoolers acce each other, their activi, and even objects of beg gay wh precisely the zero-tolerance attu that they themselv are navigatg.

DO GOD HATE GAYS / HOMOSEXUALS?

The gam aren’t jt ground disgt wh homosex; they are playg out exactly what society has tght men about heterosexualy: One wrong move, and you’ll be permanently marked.

J suggts that some men are "born nuchs, " an ancient term for beg gay, that the people are part of God's natural orr, and heterosexual marriage is not the right path for everyone.

25 THGS I HATE ABOUT BEG A GAY MAN

The chang are associated wh creased visibily of openly gay characters on televisn, the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” and the Supreme Court cisn that legalized same-sex marriage. For every highly publicized act of vlence toward sexual mori, such as the recent mass shootg at a gay nightclub Orlando, there are many more physil and verbal asslts, attempted asslts, acts of property damage or timidatns which are never reported to thori, let alone publicized by the media. But when we back up and thk about this aggrsn wh the amework of sexual stigma, we n see that the of antigay vlence n eper and are more plex than a simple “prejudice” explanatn.

For example, heterosexuals may fear that pro-gay polici such as the legalizatn of same-sex marriage will make harr to advance their own alternative polil agendas. After all, there are still gay men who don't exactly rejoice at beg a room wh lbians; as they so eloquently put , they'd rather not be around "fish, " thank you! Conversely, there are some lbians who pla about how gay men are ivolo and sex crazed, which cements the lbians' drive to stay an sular world that's way more female than trans people rent drag queens for havg male privilege and for donng the garb of the oppose sex as a performance piece, one they put on and off at will.

10 ANTI-GAY MYTHS DEBUNKED

And shockgly, there was a petn last year to remove the T om LGBT, the reasons behd cludg everythg om the alleged appropriatn of Stonewall history to the marked difference between sexual orientatn and genr inty, which supposedly should keep gays and transsexuals that's not all! While gay men and women, drag queens, and trans people have all been proclaimed the "hot thg" at one pot or another, the media hasn't picked up on bi visibily and given the mass-appeal glow that uld help s acceptance.

What's worse, bisexuals are routely disunted by gays and lbians, some of whom clearly feel that the "B" "LGBT" is strictly out of petty ms remds me of the environment I grew up as an Italian-Amerin, hearg some of the neighbors nstantly monize Jews, blacks, and other relig, ethnic, and racial groups orr to elevate themselv.

A gay wrer wrote an edorial at the time, wonrg why on earth lbians had joed the fight agast AIDS when, acrdg to him, they weren't very much at risk. And here's the real shock--that was one of the last tim I saw gays and lbians together a large room (except for the Out 100 event, of urse)! As gays dis lbians and so on, the haters stand on the sil, lghg and appldg at the self-sabotagg gog on, pecially when we hypocrilly ask the world for equaly and passn.