Hi Sozobe-
I think that we're agreeing on almost all points, but getting lost in semantics.
Quote:Predjudice cannot changed by legislation, acceptance of differences only comes with time and peaceful, natural interaction.
I was simply saying that you cannot legislate the way people feel about us, and if you do, you risk that the positive changes you were trying to make could turn negative. You also cannot make laws pertaining solely to one section of the population.
I know that discrimination exists, I do not deny that. I am saying that legislation will not change people's personal feelings, if someone's a bigot, a law is not going to change that at all.
I know that "gay bashing" happens, have some friends that have been beaten up,..but it's not more illegal to beat up someone because they're gay, than to beat them up cause they're straight and in the wrong neighborhood, or to steal their money.
There are already laws against this.
However, changing the right to marry (which I agree needs fighting for, as I have mentioned, alot), is the (imho) last bastion of rights that we need to make us equal. Once that happens, and it is given time for the novelty to wear off, it will become respectable, and help to break down personal barriers and lessen dicrimination.
I did say:
Quote:So being gay is about who I'm sleeping with,..not who I am.
It is not a political group, if you believe that it is (and some gays do), then so is the group of men that like blonds with big boobs. (just a silly example,..not an actual voting group)
I stand by that statement, I never said or meant to infer, that gay people were not discriminated against, it had nothing to do with that. Taken within the context I intended, I was saying that gay people, as a group, are a sub-culture of all of the other groups,..meaning: there are gay democrats, republicans, men, women, asian, steel workers,...you name it, so in that, I guess it could be possible that you are fighting for, and against yourself at the same time
.
It's the most similar to the the fight for women's rights, as women are a part of every other grouping (cept for men
),but the only obvious right that we don't have, that others do, is marriage.