I can somewhat understand but of course not support that mindset.
Imagine if you held it as an axiom that “being gay is bad for you”. Then it becomes similar to addiction in their eyes, some people are more susceptible, some people are less, but it is the role of community to keep people away from indulging as it is bad for you. The choice that is presumed by them is not one of identity, but one of indulgence, the alternative they have is not “be straight”, but “don’t do gay things”, so they want people to do what normal people call “staying in the closet”.
For them, a gay person is like a crack addict saying “but being a crackhead is not a choice, I was born with it, and this is how I want to live my life”. And they fear to let their children next to this gay person the same way you’d be apprehensive of a crack addict, because they might give your kids crack and make them crack addicts too. And if you tell them that their kids might be gay too is like a crack addict telling you your kids might like crack too; well of course they might, but it’s bad for you so you shouldn’t do it.
Now of course society should stay out of our bedrooms, but that is an axiom held by us, but not by them. And partisan politics of course likes to keep these divisions up so that you vote for the one side, they vote for the other, and nobody questions why can’t we just live our lives in peace.
I can somewhat understand but of course not support that mindset.
Imagine if you held it as an axiom that “being gay is bad for you”. Then it becomes similar to addiction in their eyes, some people are more susceptible, some people are less, but it is the role of community to keep people away from indulging as it is bad for you. The choice that is presumed by them is not one of identity, but one of indulgence, the alternative they have is not “be straight”, but “don’t do gay things”, so they want people to do what normal people call “staying in the closet”.
For them, a gay person is like a crack addict saying “but being a crackhead is not a choice, I was born with it, and this is how I want to live my life”. And they fear to let their children next to this gay person the same way you’d be apprehensive of a crack addict, because they might give your kids crack and make them crack addicts too. And if you tell them that their kids might be gay too is like a crack addict telling you your kids might like crack too; well of course they might, but it’s bad for you so you shouldn’t do it.
Now of course society should stay out of our bedrooms, but that is an axiom held by us, but not by them. And partisan politics of course likes to keep these divisions up so that you vote for the one side, they vote for the other, and nobody questions why can’t we just live our lives in peace.