Out of the very many things I don’t understand (and there really are quite a few), what I comprehend the least is when some decide to show hatred towards an entire section of society that they know nothing about. It’s one thing to feel physically threatened by someone; it’s quite another to feel angry because someone lives a different life from yours.
This year, EuroPride is being held in our country, the same country that keeps receiving awards for being so gay-friendly. And, yet, despite this, EuroPride posters have been vandalised and you can’t scroll past a single Pride-related social media post without reading several derogatory comments by the kind of people who have “Live, Laugh, Love” banners on their social media profiles.
Just last week, someone even commented on a post saying that they would be attending the festivities with a gun. And let’s not even get into the people constantly talking about how drag queens and the LGBTIQA+ community are the reason why our society is falling apart.
It’s ridiculous that I or anyone else should have to say this but how other people live their personal lives is not only not a danger to anyone but, more importantly, it’s none of your business. Your children will not be more or less gay because they see a man in a wig or make-up.
Your children will not be more or less gay because they see a man in a wig or make-up
Gay people have existed from time immemorial and the fact that their presence wasn’t acknowledged didn’t make them any less gay. If anything, the only thing that it did create was a bunch of miserable people, making the people they were with equally unhappy because neither of them were getting what they needed from their relationships.
I will never forget being approached by an older man at a party who told me how happy he was that things had finally changed and how glad he was that future generations wouldn’t have to live the life of lies he had. How can anyone want to sentence their fellow man to a life of misery just because they don’t understand or appreciate that we are all different?
Why is it so hard for people to accept that everyone has the right to peace and acceptance? Just because you believe in something, it doesn’t mean that everyone else does or should. I’m so sick of people using their mangled measuring sticks when they would do better to mind their own backyard.
No one is forcing you to attend Pride, in the same way that no one is forcing anyone to participate in a village feast. What the LGBTIQA+ community is doing is merely celebrating the fact that they don’t have to live in the shadows and on the fringes of society anymore and feel forced to feel shame for their very existence.
I can think of many things that would lead to the downfall of a country: murder, corruption, impunity, lying, cheating, illiteracy and a gross disregard for others. A man wearing a skirt is not one of them.