The Truth

On April 25th, thousands of students had the opportunity to voluntarily participate in an annual 'Day of Silence' in support of their GLBTQ classmates who have suffered bullying and violence as a result of homophobia. In response to this successful annual event, the Alliance Defense Fund, one of those anti-gay conservative groups hosted their 'Day of Truth' protest which apparently was not as successful, since virtually all references to it online ceased about 2 days before the event.

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-7517.html

A supporter of ADF responded to this article by saying this:

Joe wrote:
"The truth is that being gay is wrong and immoral.Personally I don't care if you are gay or not, but when groups like GLSEN start to infiltrate our schools and try to indoctrinate our Children I draw the line.The reason that the ADF doesn't have more support is that most parents don't know that GLSEN had infiltrated our public schools starting at the Kidder Garden level.As more and more are being made aware of this, ADF is gaining support. "

You know me, I can't resist telling the truth. Here's my response:

No, it isn't. That isn't truth...it's conjecture on your part.

The truth is there is nothing immoral or wrong about the ability to love another human being, gay or straight.

The truth is there is no 'infiltration' and no 'indoctrination' of children in schools.

The truth is fundamentalists coined these phrases as part of the 'dumbing down' of their followers(read 'voters.')

The truth is that instead of accepting the opinions of thousands upon thousands of medical, psychological, psychiatric, sociologic and pediatric professionals who all say the same thing, fundamentalists expect you to follow along with their hate filled agenda like good little sheep, voting for discriminitory laws and supporting legislation that deprives good, honest, tax paying citizens of their basic fundamental rights based solely on the gender of their partners. They do this by insulting your intelligence through the use of these typical inflammatory buzzwords designed to engender strong negative feelings in people in an effort to illicit the response they want.

The truth is that children need education regarding diversity and tolerance. Tolerance does not mean acceptance...it just means 'live and let live.' Have your beliefs, believe in them with all your heart if you choose to, but don't force them onto people who have a different truth than you, especially when their truth is backed up by thousands of professionals, and yours comes only from your choice of religion.

The truth is diversity and tolerance education makes the world a safer place to be - from people just like you.

Oh, and 'kidder garden?' Lol...dumbing down, indeed.

OMG! Can people really be THIS stupid?

I frequent a discussion board called Topix.net. It features various news stories followed by reader comments and discussion. Any time there is a story about anything related to gay or lesbian people, it seems the 'christofascists' come out in force to spread the most awful and degrading lies I have every heard. Sometimes I wonder how these people can call themselves 'christian' and keep a straight face.

Today someone was actually trying to convice people that homosexual acts are the CAUSE of AIDS. No matter how many times it was pointed out to him that AIDS is caused by a virus and no matter how many links to correct information he was provided with, he still insisted that no, AIDS was caused by two gay people having sex. Can people really be this stupid? Another poster kept insisting that the APA still considers homosexuality a mental disorder, only they now call it 'gender identity disorder,' when in reality 'gender identity disorder' has nothing at all to do with sexual orientation, as a quick google search of the APA will clearly tell you.

It's scary the kinds of beliefs people will hold onto in spite of factual evidence to the contrary. I think it's called 'cognitive dissonance' -the filtering of information that conflicts with what one already believes, in an effort to ignore that information and reinforce one's beliefs (thanks wiki). The example of this phenomenon I was given in college was something like this: WWI prisoners who were systematically rounded up and marched off for execution were routinely told they were going somewhere else for a purpose other than execution, and although they had seen their neighbors marched off the day before and not return, although they had heard the gunfire at the edge of town, the prisoners chose to believe their captors and go with them willingly. I think those who hold negative views of gay people are caught up in this pattern of cognitive dissonance. They have been told all their lives by society, by their families, by their pastors, by other religious zealots that being gay is a choice, that it isn't a natural thing, that homosexuals are going to hell. In spite of all the evidence suggesting the innate state of sexual orientation, despite knowledge that homosexuality, while certainly not the majority, is a natural variant of sexual orientation and is found in at least 1000 species of the animal kingdom, in spite of a growing recognition by religious scholars that the translations of the bible are not concrete, that homosexuality is NOT a harmful behavior and therefore cannot be a sin, some people continue to twist and filter the information, in an effort to reinforce their beliefs.

Hate groups like NARTH and the AFA prey on these people...and are guilty of using inflammatory speech and spreading terrible lies to reinforce these beliefs in an effort to further their political agenda to block equal rights legislation for gay and lesbian people. How do I know this to be true, and not just 'liberal propaganda?' I listened to what they were saying. I went to their websites and researched, checking their info against the info from the AMA, APA and many other credible sources. I started noticing that every time I would do an internet search for something related to gay/lesbian/bisexual or transgender issues, I would get a bunch of religious websites. So, I did a google search of just the term 'homosexuality.' Of the top ten listings, six are religious based websites offering their viewpoint, instead of factual information. This clearly tells me that there is an agenda...and it definitely isn't 'that gay one.' Thank God there are people out there, both gay and straight alike, who are willing to speak the truth.

Okay, that's my rant for the day.