Over the past year, a number of television personalities and athletes have “come out” as being gay, to the collective yawn of the American people. In what they believe to be a “courageous” move, we find that “coming out” isn’t courageous at all because these people who come out are finding they aren’t being treated any differently afterwards than they were before. It’s just not something the vast majority of people care about. Of course, the LGBT activists have to complain about something, and always seize on some small number of idiots (on the left and the right) making disparaging comments about these people who have “come out,” in a desperate play to make it appear that gays are an oppressed class of people when they are not.
We are finding out that indeed, no matter what the LGBT community tries to do to play up discrimination against gays, anyone with common sense sees their claim to systematic oppression as tenuous at best. In fact, gays enjoy high levels of success as a community and there is no one systematically denying them rights because they’re just people like everyone else. For the life of me, I don’t know why anyone would want to wear their sexuality on their sleeve, making it a key part of their identity. I always thought that most people want their identity to be based on their accomplishments and the things they are doing to help others in the world. Being homosexual is not an accomplishment any more than being a heterosexual is an accomplishment.
Now what I do believe is there is a problem with some perceptions and attitudes towards gays, which is often mistaken for “discrimination” when it is not. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that relationships between people of the opposite sex is natural and is obviously the only natural way children can be brought into the world. Moreover, it can be easily ascertained that some sexual acts cause damage to the human body over time since these acts are against the design of the human body. And if one is a Christian, this view is further solidified since the Bible is clear that homosexuality as a lifestyle is sinful (yet not to be singled out). That being said, just because people participate in unnatural and sinful behavior does not mean those persons should be reviled or treated with less respect as persons.
I see two problems, essentially. First, those who have historically reviled gays or treated them poorly because of their lifestyle have created an environment where gays have felt they needed to band together to achieve civil rights as a group. Indeed, laws in many states have historically shut gays out on matters such as hospital visitation and survivor rights. Gays have responded, and rightfully so, with a campaign to fight such laws that violate their obvious constitutional rights, but have gone one step further to demand same-sex marriage so their relationships will be seen as equivalent to heterosexual marriage. This, I think, is deeply flawed because the institution of marriage is very specific, but it is a state matter for the people or legislatures to decide.
The second problem flows from the first. Because of historical attitudes and various laws that have made gays feel like an oppressed class, gays are ever seeking attention and “support,” particularly from gays who are in the public eye, thinking this will somehow validate their lifestyle choice in the eyes of the public. But I think it actually doesn’t. Though attitudes and laws have come a long way, a majority of people will continue to see homosexuality as unnatural for moral or religious reasons without having ill feelings or hate directed at gays. There are, quite simply, few who believe in oppression of gays in any manner as persons. And we see the civil laws from years ago prohibiting gay sex either being rescinded or going unenforced.
What I think our society needs to do, particularly in the Christian community, is to show more love towards gays. Gays don’t need special attention because being gay is not worthy of attention. Love does not mean that one condones the gay lifestyle, accepts it as moral, or believes it is equivalent to heterosexual relationships. But gays should not be made to feel they are not accepted as persons if they express that they are gay or their sexuality openly. And gays should not assume or assert that those who don’t accept their lifestyle are “haters.” As long as they are being loved and treated with respect as persons, then it shouldn’t matter what a person thinks about them morally. Tolerance is a two way street, and all sides need to accept that principle.
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