If your religious principles lead you to berate people for being gay, you ought to reject those principles

Recently, a gay man departing from a restaurant in Lansing Charter Township, Michigan was called a fucking faggot  by another customer of the restaurant:

Isiah David Tweedie says that he and his friends went to the Fire Mountain restaurant in Lansing Charter Township, Michigan Wednesday. Upon leaving with his friends, a man he says was also a patron came out and called him a “fucking faggot.”

Tweedie filmed the incident with his camera phone and posted the video to his Facebook page.

“I said, ‘fucking faggot.’ You want a picture? Take a picture,” the man, who approaches Tweedie, says repeatedly.

“I’m an American, born in America,” the unnamed man says. Tweedie replies, “I’m an American too, honey.”

“You’re a fucking faggot,” the man again says. “I am a fucking faggot,” Tweedie replies.

“God’s law — Leviticus, Leviticus — you should be put to death,” the man yells, pointing to Tweedie.

(source)

There is so much wrong here.  For one thing, calling a gay man a ‘fucking faggot’ might be intended as an insult, but it’s not anything terribly insulting in and of itself.  Gay men have sex with other gay men.  Faggot is a slang term for gay men.  The bigot wasn’t calling Tweedie anything that didn’t apply.  Now granted, yes, his delivery was perfectly understood.  He intended it as an insult.  Why? According to him, he derives his beliefs from the bible and the bible says gay people should be stoned.  Clearly, he thinks there is something wrong with being gay, and so when he hurls the insult ‘fucking faggot’, he intends it to be a slight.  The phrase is intended to assault the notions of manhood and masculinity in gay people.  Almost as if the bigot thinks, deep down, that gay people really think there’s something wrong with being gay.  It escapes people like this that for many gay people (like myself) there is nothing wrong with being gay.  Moreover, notions of masculinity and what it means to be a man are wrapped up in horrible gender essentialist ideas of how men and women are supposed to conduct themselves.  These archaic rules don’t allow for people to push the boundaries of gender roles, let alone shatter them.  Yet that is what happens so often when it comes to homosexuality.  Gay men sleep with other men. That right there is seen as an affront to manhood because men are supposed to sleep with women, not other men.  Says who?  Many argue that the bible says so.  I don’t give a flying fuck that a several thousand year old book written by people with little understanding of humanity and the world around them has to say about sexuality.  That book does not serve as a guiding light in my life and I’d argue that it shouldn’t serve as guidance for anyone given the horribly inconsistent “morality” therein (not to mention the horrible actions of the genocidal deity in the bible).

Many gay men present themselves in an effeminate fashion, which also shatters gender roles.  Women are supposed to present as feminine, and men as masculine.  The two shouldn’t cross over.  Oddly enough, a host of other qualities cross over between men and women (shared emotions, intellect, creativity, passions), but certain things are off limits.  Gender presentation is apparently one of those things.  It shouldn’t be though.  How I present myself to the world-barring actions that have a negative impact on others-should be no ones business but my own.  If I choose to leave the house wearing heels, pasties and a pink tutu, that should be no more cause for alarm than if I left the house in blue jeans and a tee shirt.  And yet, that does cause alarm.

People are invested in gender roles, from early in their lives.  Whether its the type of colors attributed to specific genders, or the type of toys that kids are supposed to play with, or the careers encouraged in boys or girls, no one in our society can escape the effects of rigid gender roles.

Like the bigot at the restaurant though, people need to understand that gender roles and sexuality are not an expression of morality.  Morality concerns the interactions between humans (not between invisible, inaudible, undetectable, beings, entities, forces, or energies…and humans).  What is right? What is wrong? Those questions are best answered by determining which actions are beneficial and which ones are detrimental to humanity.  Questions of right and wrong are not going to be resolved by seeking answers from an archaic tome that fails to address what morality even means (morality is not whatever god tells us).    For the bigot in this story, I’d tell him to research what morality is and how we derive our answers to what is right or wrong. I’d ask him to honestly take a look at gay men or lesbians and determine what they are doing that is so wrong that they should be put to death, or even to face discrimination and oppression. Yes, I’m a man who is physically, emotionally, and psychologically attracted to other men. I’ve never been attracted to women. I can’t change that, nor do I want to. I’m proud of who and what I am.  Is that grounds for calling for my death? I’ve harmed no one by being gay.  Not one single person has been adversely affected by my sexuality.  So why should I be killed for my sexuality?  Riddle me that bigots?

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If your religious principles lead you to berate people for being gay, you ought to reject those principles
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