northernangler17 said:Well, you can't understand them because you just don't have that specific mental wiring. I guess the main thing to realize is how the way we were raised—how we basically soaked everything up like sponges as kids—shapes our entire lives, our worldview, how we act, and how we handle relationships, both with others and ourselves. See, the point is that sexuality, ESPECIALLY sexual orientation factor, was always kept hidden from kids... children never even got the chance to see two people of the same gender being affectionate or kissing or whatever. Because kids RECOGNIZE love and they FEEL it. So, if you show a kid who hasn't been conditioned yet two men or two women kissing and loving each other, it would just be INTERESTING to them, not weird. It would be new—just like everything else they see in this world—because kids learn through conditioning. It’s the same deal with most people growing up in families where homosexuality is treated as a "taboo," and when it is mentioned, it's always in a negative light. It isn't just about the family, though—it's about the whole world (which, obviously, exists because every single person is RAISED in a certain way—paradoxical, I know, but you can't have one without the other) and the general "vibe" out there. And the vibe is such that people automatically DISMISS anything that is "generally accepted" as unnatural and gross. PERIOD. People, because it's UNKNOWN and STRANGE to them, automatically start fearing it and want to push "that" away—mostly because they are terrified for their own sense of "normalcy." They're so scared of being unloved by anyone that they reflexively shove things into the "normal" box just because they think it guarantees acceptance. And then what happens? People refuse to THINK. They refuse to allow themselves EMPATHY. They refuse to ask, "Wait a second, isn't this just falling in love? Aren't they just... people? How would I feel in their shoes?" Like, if I fell for someone of the same sex against my will, those feelings would feel NATURAL (!). So isn't it actually unnatural to go against your own nature? It's just that the whole concept of homosexuality is so controversial to them that they don't even bother thinking deeper about it. If they did, they'd reach this incredible, yet incredibly BARELY-NOTICED realization: "Wait, what's actually so weird about this?" Because seriously, I mean it: what is actually so weird?
Look, my own folks didn't exactly sing praises about it either. But after sitting with the thought for a while, I asked myself: why bother harboring this resentment? If someone were to offer me one single, legitimate reason to feel antipathy toward them, I’d listen. But I haven't found one.
Is a gay man going to assault me? No. Is a lesbian going to steal my boyfriend or my husband? Not happening.
Are they going to somehow "strip away" my heterosexuality? No.
So why on earth would I live in fear or carry hatred in my heart? 😕
Is simple arithmetic really that difficult?
Honestly, I find it baffling that some people struggle to connect these dots. This isn't rocket science; it’s just basic, elementary logic.
I suspect others who don't harbor hate have reached this same conclusion. It seems quite rare to find people whose parents didn't already instill a sense of tolerance in them, especially since the whole movement of social emancipation is such a relatively recent phenomenon in American history.
And yet, even starting from the same baseline, some people arrive at this realization while others stay stuck.
Lately, I've begun to suspect it might simply be a matter of intelligence. 🤷
