Quote:
Originally Posted by Atocep
Pretty accurate
On right wing boards being LGBTQ is talked about as a mental health issue that needs be cured with therapy and medication and teens are only coming out because it's the cool thing to do in their age group.
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I can't speak much to right wing boards, but I asked two of my coworkers about this and I don't think they had any reason to lie to me in their responses. This was back when we used to go into the office and do things like go out to lunch. These are guys I get along with on a lot of stuff and, while I'd be hesitant to call any coworkers "friends", per se - they're two that I share a lot of interests with, even if politically, we're quite different.
One was talking about how his daughter or maybe granddaughter thought she might be gay or bi and they started talking about that disparagingly. I asked them a couple of questions to expand on their thoughts and got what I thought were 2 different viewpoints. But I also tried to be non-confrontational and non-judgemental in talking with them as I wanted to get as unvarnished an opinion as I could, but I still lightly challenged some of what they said.
Here's some of the commonalities and some of the differences that I remembered:
- The coworker whose relative it was through it was a choice. Like she was just choosing to do that because her head was filled by bad people around her, etc. Also, it was just going to be a fad or phase she was going through. He didn't seem to
- Also, he's born again religious and he condemns it on those grounds - but I think that's more a convenient excuse than serious dogma. I've had some long conversations with him about other religious topics and he's a bit, um, selective about what he chooses to believe from the Bible. He's not showy - he's not going to tell you that he's religious the first time you meet him - but he has some very deeply held beliefs but I also think he hasn't been religious long enough to have to confront some of the major contradictions of faith. He has also informed me how the Pope is wrong a number of times, which is just kindof funny to me.
- The other thought it was more of a birth defect. I mean, on the one hand, I guess that's, in a way, more perceptive in that it admits that it's something genetic and inborn instead of a choice (as one of my neighbors has said to me sarcastically "Yes, I chose this 'lifestyle' and the discrimination and the not being able to get married until a few years ago"). However, he also wasn't exactly against eugenics to get it out of the population.
- I think both of them are the type that think it's more ok for women than men. Though I think the former is more of the whole "women just haven't me the right dude yet and I could totally turn her straight and/or get a threesome" while both are like "ew, dude buttseks - that's repugnant and it's like having sex with animals and kids" line of thinking.
Again, I didn't want to get too confrontational as I wanted to hear their actual unvarnished thoughts and, also because these are people I've worked with for years and will likely continue working with for years. They were also both aware that I don't feel the same way but that this wasn't me trying to go "gotcha" on them, but rather understand their points of view more.
SI