421 replies to this topic

[jorik1994]

Hi

So I had a question about being gay. Some of my friends say it's unnatural and the bible says that it's wrong, etc...
Russian people also hate gay poeple. They say that it's a disease and you can heal it and become straight.
What can you say to people who think that being gay is wrong?

Please, help me

Jorik

[HerNibs]

jorik1994, on 01 February 2012 - 09:15 PM, said:

Hi

So I had a question about being gay. Some of my friends say it's unnatural and the bible says that it's wrong, etc...
Russian people also hate gay poeple. They say that it's a disease and you can heal it and become straight.
What can you say to people who think that being gay is wrong?

Please, help me

Jorik

1.  What consenting adults do in their "bedroom" is no one's business.
2.  Animals exhibit homosexual behavior.
3.  Religious beliefs should be a persons PRIVATE belief and not be used to legislate another person.
4.  It is NOT a disease.
5.  Ask your friends when they "chose" to be straight.

6.  Get new friends.

Nibs

[HerNibs]

Oh, and "Russian people hate gay people" is nonsense.  

Some societies are more tolerant than others but a generalized statement like that is incorrect.

Nibs

[I Am Not Resisting]

HerNibs, on 01 February 2012 - 09:40 PM, said:

1.  What consenting adults do in their "bedroom" is no one's business.
2.  Animals exhibit homosexual behavior.
3.  Religious beliefs should be a persons PRIVATE belief and not be used to legislate another person.
4.  It is NOT a disease.
5.  Ask your friends when they "chose" to be straight.

6.  Get new friends.

Nibs

Personally, I like #6.  

[Ratte]

My boyfriend is Russian.

I was tempted to leave it at that, but I have more to say.

I don't understand why this debate still rages. Its clear to me that there are much more important things to argue about than someones sexuality. Personally, I believe that everyone is bisexual when it comes right down to it and a preferance is just that, and it's perfectly understandable to prefer ones own gender over another. I know everyone wont agree with me, and I'm ok with that.

When it comes to religious beliefs, well, I had trouble understanding that too, but a friend once explained it to me as such: 'you have to think about the time the bible was written in. There were a lot less people then there are now. A lot of rules they made are no longer relevant in our clean, safe, over-populated society.'

[Spectre1979]

Ratte, on 01 February 2012 - 11:51 PM, said:

My boyfriend is Russian.

I was tempted to leave it at that, but I have more to say.

I don't understand why this debate still rages. Its clear to me that there are much more important things to argue about than someones sexuality. Personally, I believe that everyone is bisexual when it comes right down to it and a preferance is just that, and it's perfectly understandable to prefer ones own gender over another. I know everyone wont agree with me, and I'm ok with that.

When it comes to religious beliefs, well, I had trouble understanding that too, but a friend once explained it to me as such: 'you have to think about the time the bible was written in. There were a lot less people then there are now. A lot of rules they made are no longer relevant in our clean, safe, over-populated society.'

I believe everyone has the potential to be bi, gay, or straight as well.

[Orcseeker]

I think it is simply to do with genetics.

[Curious16yearold]

Most people who think being gay is wrong are ignorant and you wont be able to change there minds. One day hopefully a gay person does something nice for them and they change there views.

[acute]

Sexual identity is a spectrum, from heterosexual woman, bisexual woman, lesbian, gay man, bisexual man, to heterosexual man.

We are all on this line somewhere, and the vast majority of us were born the way we are.

Edited by acute alan, 04 February 2012 - 10:33 PM.

[I Am Not Resisting]

Curious16yearold, on 03 February 2012 - 02:34 AM, said:

Most people who think being gay is wrong are ignorant and you wont be able to change there minds. One day hopefully a gay person does something nice for them and they change there views.

I agree and I find it very sad that my mother, who is highly educated, has a degree in psychology and is a social worker, no longer believes that there is nothing wrong with homosexuality because my extremely religous father has convinced her otherwise.  If more people would let logic and reason guide their mind then the world's problems could probably be cut in half.

[Ratte]

I had a discussion with my co-workers about this today and most of them said they'd still love their kids if they turned out to be gay, but would try their hardest to convince them to be straight. I think it's rather silly. Apparently, they also think that if you are bisexual you are automatically gay. A person is not defined by their current relationship. I'm with a man, but that doesn't mean if I see a hot chick walking down the street that I'm not going to do a double take and say 'daaayumn!'. Nikolai would be right there with me, admiring her. Honestly, when I adopt kids I kind of hope they are gay. At least that way I can be sure that I wont have to take care of any grandkids before I'm ready to be a grandparent.

[Sepultra30]

jorik1994, on 01 February 2012 - 09:15 PM, said:

Hi

So I had a question about being gay. Some of my friends say it's unnatural and the bible says that it's wrong, etc...
Russian people also hate gay poeple. They say that it's a disease and you can heal it and become straight.
What can you say to people who think that being gay is wrong?

Please, help me

Jorik

Hi Jorik!  There's a very good documentary my fiance and I just watched called "For the bible tells me so".  There's a lot of really good info in it about how the bible is misused around this topic.  You should watch it, it will give you a lot of material to work with when people bible quote against being gay. Being gay is not a disease, disorder or anything bad that needs to be healed because nothing is broken.  It's not a choice.  We have gay friends and all of them say this is how they were born.  Period.  It's as natural to be gay as it is to be born any other way.  People judge what they don't understand, fear, or have much knowledge about.  My personal feeling is that God is above all the judgemental pettiness that we humans have lowered him down to.  The Bible is very much a product of its time, cultural ideas and customs.

[Colonel Rhuairidh]

Ratte, on 01 February 2012 - 11:51 PM, said:

When it comes to religious beliefs, well, I had trouble understanding that too, but a friend once explained it to me as such: 'you have to think about the time the bible was written in. There were a lot less people then there are now. A lot of rules they made are no longer relevant in our clean, safe, over-populated society.'

this is a very pertinent point. The OT (or those parts of it that are full of Thou Shalts, and more often Thou Shalt Nots) was written as instructions for the tribes of israel; a specific group of people at a specific time, when tribal culture was all about increasing the strength and hence the fighting ability of the Tribe. That was why women were just treated as items to be bought & sold like thy neighbour's ass.   "But", people might say, "it's in the New testament as well; so Jesus must not have approved of it". Well, no, Jesus never said anything at all on the subject. Paul may have done, but that was in the context of a great long list of complaints about all sorts of things that people were doing, and was more about abuses of hospitality that any particular fixation with that particular topic.

And, regarding the subject in general, I think everyone is flexible ( ) to some extent or other, and violent insistence that "I'm Straight, me" and violent antipathy to the very idea I very strongly suspect is just covering up insecurity that perhaps they're not as secure as they might like to think.

[Imaginarynumber1]

“Males do not represent two discrete populations, heterosexual and homosexual. The world is not to be divided into sheep and goats…The living world is a continuum in each and every one of its aspects."




“It is a characteristic of the human mind that tries to dichotomize in its classification of phenomena….Sexual behavior is either normal or abnormal, socially acceptable or unacceptable, heterosexual or homosexual; and many persons do not want to believe that there are gradations in these matters from one to the other extreme.”




http://www.iub.edu/~...ak-hhscale.html

[The Dreamer - Hybrid89]

HerNibs, on 01 February 2012 - 09:40 PM, said:

1.  What consenting adults do in their "bedroom" is no one's business.
2.  Animals exhibit homosexual behavior.
3.  Religious beliefs should be a persons PRIVATE belief and not be used to legislate another person.
4.  It is NOT a disease.
5.  Ask your friends when they "chose" to be straight.

6.  Get new friends.

Nibs

Agreeing with Nibs on this 1