Why homophobia is dangerous for the whole society, not just for homosexuals

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-13 00:26

No propaganda. We just want to explain why any position based on hatred hurts us all. 18+.

This article is part of the Auto-da-fe project. In it, we declare war on everything that prevents people from living and becoming better: breaking laws, believing in nonsense, deceit and fraud. If you've come across a similar experience, share your stories in the comments.

In the summer of 2019, a same-sex couple was attacked on a bus in London. The four men insulted the girls and tried to force them to kiss in order to "enjoy the spectacle." When they refused, they were beaten and robbed.

What happened is disgusting for many reasons. But the physical violence of homophobes against those who are different from themselves is not all that these people are dangerous with.

How homosexuality is perceived in society

Homosexuality was officially excluded from the category of diseases and disorders back in 1973. It became clear that some people are like that by nature, due to genetic and biological factors. In the animal kingdom, homosexuality also occurs, but you will not find a single penguin who condemns two males of their own species for same-sex union.

But in the human world, even in 2019, not everyone wants to admit that the issues of love and attraction are biochemistry, and not a person's desire to become gay or lesbian in spite of society. There are still some kind of fighters for "normality" - homophobes who try to project their ideas about life and love onto others.

According to a poll by the Levada Center, almost half of Russians would communicate less or stop contacting an acquaintance if they found out about his homosexuality.

But let's do a little thought experiment.

Are you straight? Close your eyes and try to force yourself to take a romantic interest in someone of your gender.

Come on, pull yourself together. Feel attracted to a gender mate, imagine a candlelit dinner together, morning coffee in bed, or whatever comes to mind.

Did it work out and was it pleasant for you to think about it? Congratulations: your orientation is not so straightforward. You have just taken the first step towards understanding yourself.

Didn't it work out? This is exactly what homosexuals feel when they cannot bring themselves to fall in love with a person of the opposite sex.

But homophobes do not admit this and like to speculate about the naturalness of heterosexual love and the "correct" institution of the family. They believe that same-sex couples should not show feelings in public, marry, have children, or even live in the world. Particularly aggressive people believe that heterosexuality gives them the right to physical violence against the "not like".

What exactly is homophobia dangerous?

Being convinced of the correctness of your own position is not a bad thing in itself. Problems arise when some people force others to adjust their lives to their beliefs.

When an uncompromising group of people tries to restrict the rights of another, appealing to some abstract ideals, this is radicalism. Any manifestations of radicalism are dangerous for society, since they do not leave a chance for dialogue and peaceful coexistence.

Homophobia is no different in form from Nazism, racism or chauvinism.

Perhaps this is why homophobic attacks are legally recognized as a hate crime in Switzerland.

The logic of homophobia throws us back into the days when the moral aristocrats of the American South believed that owning black slaves was the natural order of things; when women were forbidden to vote or attend university; when one Austrian artist managed to convince an entire nation of his own greatness and the insignificance of others.

By giving homophobia a right to exist, we strengthen and spread a mindset based on hatred and rejection of the essence of other people.

What homophobic postulates are meaningless

Usually homophobes rely on one of these postulates. They may sound dramatic, but don’t believe it, because they have no real basis.

If everyone becomes gay, humanity will die out

First, they won't. We have already found out that a person's orientation is a combination of biological and genetic factors. Look at the Netherlands. They were the first of all countries in 2001 to recognize the right of same-sex couples to marry. The number of heterosexual and same-sex marriages in the Netherlands from 2008 to 2018 has remained at the same level for almost 20 years and does not exceed 1,500 same-sex marriages per year. That is, even when homosexuals can be openly such, their number does not increase. At the same time, the birth rate in the country is changing. Birth rate declining as in the rest of the world: women simply prefer to have children at a more mature age.

Second, demographic trends speak more of an overpopulation of the planet with people than of extinction. According to World Population Prospects 2019: UN Highlights, 9.7 billion people will live on Earth by 2050. Despite the fact that a man and a woman are always needed to have a child, orientation is not a panacea here. There are heterosexual couples who do not want offspring, and homosexual families where they have children, resorting to surrogacy, artificial insemination or adoption. Research finds Same-sex and different-sex parent households and child health outcomes: findings from the National Survey of Children’s Health, no differences in the health and well-being of children raised by same-sex couples and different-sex parents.

Another thing is strange. Why is the survival of humankind worried about homophobes in such a context? A damn comfortable position: you can show your concern for the world, but you don't have to do anything. Feel free to use plastic bags that take 400 years to decompose. There is meat, and its production, meanwhile, destroys the ozone layer and depletes the Earth's resources. Throw away usable leftovers and renew your wardrobe every season, stimulating the mass market to produce tons of synthetic clothing, which then goes to landfill.

If a person really cares about future generations, it will be more beneficial if he gives up disposable plastic, makes vegetables and fruits the main part of the diet, and, if possible, buys used things.

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It's unnatural

The question of the nature of man is philosophical. Throughout history, great thinkers have failed to agree on what lies at the heart of our nature. Are we primarily biological or social creatures? Should our life be determined by reproductive function or rational choice?

In different eras, different points of view prevailed. Modern realists said that the natural state of man is a war of all against everyone. Liberals - that a person has a desire for freedom and prosperity at any cost. Marxists believed that happiness is achieved by social equality and free labor, and sex and love are the same resources as others. Postmodernists talked about the variability of normality and the absence of standards in anything.

Do you understand, yes? The only thing that is clear today is that we still do not know what is paramount and natural for us. Our current understanding of normality is only an iteration of the development of society.

Let us finally understand how naive it is to say: "A person should be so and so!" Reality shows us a delightful wealth of types, the luxury of wasteful play and change of forms …

Friedrich Nietzsche "Twilight of idols, or how they philosophize with a hammer"

It means only one thing. You need to calm down and try to live your own life happily, giving other people the right to do the same.

What if our children see it?

A terrible dream of a homophobe: a child sees a gay couple and asks why the uncles are holding on to the handle. Apparently, these people believe that something will click in a child's head, he will shout: "Why, it was possible ?!" and will run away into the sunset, singing "Oh no no no I'm a rocket man".

The lack of confidence of homophobes in their own orientation and the orientation of their loved ones is surprising. It seems that they themselves did not become gays and lesbians, because as a child, by some miracle, they did not catch the eye of "wrong" kisses and rainbow flags. They walked along the edge and grew up normal, otherwise they would certainly have gone to conquer new peaks.

But in fact, it is impossible to become gay after seeing a same-sex couple on the street or opening the wrong website on the Internet. Homosexuals are often born in heterosexual families, while many children raised by same-sex couples are interested in lesbian and gay parenting of the opposite sex.

So you can honestly tell your child that people have fallen in love with each other and want to be together. That this also happens in the world, and there is nothing to worry about if both people are happy. That most often boys and girls fall in love with each other, but it also happens in a different way.

If such a thing as orientation could be imposed, homosexuals simply would not survive in the midst of all this heterosexual propaganda.

Why Stop Homophobia

As you can see, the slogans of homophobes are in fact broken up against statistics, science, or the laws of the development of society. When we give homophobia the right to exist, we move further and further from the world of facts and reason, towards enmity and chauvinism.

People who are able to bully or beat others because of their nature are a crowd with pitchforks and torches. They will be ready to devour anyone who is different from them, just because they are used to considering themselves the only right.

We have all the benefits of the modern world thanks to those who understood that they could live happier, and were not afraid to explain it to others. Homosexuals, straight people, women, men, in general all people - we have the right to live the only life in harmony with ourselves and the world. Without harming others and defending your right to safety.

We are not saying that homosexuals need special treatment or encouragement. We are talking about a society where people can live without fear of being beaten or humiliated because of their orientation.

The logic is simple: if you don't like dentists, don't become a dentist. If you don't think blonde hair is attractive, go on dates with brunettes and redheads. And if homosexuals are not pleasant to you - be straight for your pleasure. But just do not oppress those who want to live life differently.