Blog#38

So I was scrolling through the featured posts and I came across Brage's post about opinions on different things. I'm going to do my opinion on homophobia and sexuality. I think I'll do my opinion on racism in another post.

All in all, I accept the LGBTQ+ community with all my heart. I have nothing against them and wish them the best for everything. I can probably say more about homophobia than sexuality because homophobia is a subject I feel strongly about. I really don't like homophobia and I'll say a few things about it

If they say, "Well, that just my opinion!" Their opinion isn't really a nice one, nor is it an actual opinion. An "opinion" is "I like tea more than coffee!"

"Dogs are better than cats!

"Summer is better than winter!"

"Hoodies are uncomfortable"

Those are opinions, the people who claim their absolute hate is an opinion is because they need something to hide behind while being hateful. They may also want someone to defend them. They'll also say "freedom of speech!" and that is something most of us are blessed to have. But when they start bashing people, that's something called "hate speech". Also, freedom of speech doesn't mean "the freedom to say something without backlash". When they start hating on someone it's "an opinion and freedom of speech" but when someone calls them out on it and says "hey, there are people who are actually affected by this and it's insensitive to be saying this", the people who said something back are bullying them? That's not how it is, if they say something hateful, someone IS going to say something back. And more often than not, they're very kind and formal in their argument. Some people are just misinformed about sexualities and need the right and more information. Though, there is something different between "misinformed" and "hateful". Also, if you look at the statistics about LGBTQ+ youth, they're more likely to be bullied, beat up, murdered, or commit suicide when they're around non accepting and hateful peers, and it's lower when they're in accepting and loving environments. It's a lower rate, it's not gone. That means that even though they receive love and from their family and friends, people who are hateful are still getting to them, still bullying them, still beating them up, still murdering them, still making them take their own lives. Their "opinion" is awful and they have blood on their hands.

Do they know that being gay, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, polysexual, etc. is in someone's genes? They're going to hate someone because of their DNA? Because of the way they were handcrafted?

Does it ever occur to them how scared LGBTQ+ couples are when they're holding hands with their partner walking down the street? How scared they are when they're questioning their sexuality? I'm absolutely scared to be questioning who I am, not because I'm scared to be lesbian or bisexual but because I'm scared to be hated for having feelings. I'm scared to be seen with my girlfriend and have people call out names and obscenities. That shouldn't be happening. Nobody should be afraid of being themselves, of having different feelings, or wanting to say "I love you".

Nobody Should Be Afraid Or Uncomfortable In Their Own Skin

Just a couple years ago, there was a shooting in Pulse. A few weeks ago I watched something called "America under fire" and that very episode was about Pulse. I cried for a while because I've never heard the stories of the victims and it was absolutely heartbreaking. It's not okay, we need to learn to love each other.

We need to learn to love each other and stand hand and hand to lift each other up. We shouldn't be bringing each other down. My grandma told me, we need to be careful in what we say to our kids and the people around us, because it's not just our kids that will be affected by our words. Our words will carry through many generations and many generations after that. I think that's absolutely true.

If we want a peaceful, kind, caring, loving, accepting world, we need to say-and do- peaceful, kind, caring, loving accepting words. When I'm able to have kids, I want my daughter to hold the hand of her girlfriend in public and have nobody think twice of it and I don't want someone to call her a "d**e". I want my son to laugh and hug his boyfriend at school and not have someone yell "f****t!". It's a horrible place we live in right now and we have to work hard and try to bring each other up. Nothing is going to change-and get better- until we stand up and say "Stop."

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, it's not."

But we are slowly learning to accept and love each other. Don't ever forget that you count as you learn to love and accept yourself. We need to focus more on the positive than the negative. If we focused on more of the positive, what kind of world do you think we'd live in? Would it be easier to accept yourself?

Love yourself?

Be yourself?

I think so. If you are who you are in a world that doesn't want you to, you are stronger than you realize and wiser than you know.

We need to call out people when they're being ignorant or hating on other people. It is scary to say "stop" but if we do it together, it will be harder to knock us down.

And no one's knocking us down.

Not today.