Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Intolerance can't survive if we don't condone it

By HOWARD TROXLER
Published June 19, 2005

The members of the Hillsborough County Commission who voted this past week to kick Gay Pride Week out of the public libraries do not consider themselves to be the bad guys. So screaming at them will not change their ways.

What will change their ways is for folks to be disappointed with them, and for their friends and neighbors to tell them so. That is how the world changes.

It's how we white people changed.

I was born at the end of the 1950s. In the place and the time that I grew up, it was socially acceptable for white people to be openly racist. Lots of people said N-this and N-that to each other.

Even today, open racism still exists. But in our culture it generally is not acceptable. And although part of that change came from protests and marches and laws, an essential part of the change was that racism had to become shameful among white people, and in the way they dealt with each other.

The same has to happen among straight people regarding our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters - and they are our brothers and sisters, and our children, and even our parents.

If I had a kid who asked me about what "gay" meant before knowing about all the other stuff, I would say: Well, most men like women, and marry them. Most women like men and marry them. Some don't. That's pretty much it.

(2) Quit linking homosexuality to child molesting.

(3) Even if you believe homosexuality is a "sin," that is not the basis for secular discrimination.

But let me tell you, if protection from sin is going to be the order of our secular society, then I demand that the adulterers be put at the front of the list. They are the true threat to the "sanctity" of marriage.

And I want churches to say: We Refuse To Ordain Coveters.

I want all government licenses denied to people who dishonor the Sabbath.

You say I'm being ridiculous?

Why? You think YOU aren't an "abomination unto the Lord," because you're just a run-of-the-mill sinner, but homosexuals - now, they're the REAL sinners?

(4) I don't care about the "choice" question.

But so what? If tomorrow morning I decided to become a Catholic, or to convert to Judaism, does that mean I am less entitled to protection from discrimination?

Let people be what they are.

(5) Here's why there's no "Straight Pride Week."

(6) I'm not calling you a bad person for being uncomfortable.

No doubt, lots of people this week cheered the Hillsborough County Commission. Thank God you are standing up for decency, people will tell them.

Except that's exactly wrong. This is the decent side. And I am asking you, on this Sunday morning, to join me and to tell all of your friends and neighbors, and your parents, and your sisters and brothers, and your friends, and all the people you know, that the alternative is unacceptable.

[Last modified June 19, 2005, 00:37:03]