when do you draw the line? when do you speak up? the jerks in the world who do drive-by yellings of f* fags...the nice conservative people incredulous that gay people want to have a pride day...the innocent child who whispers to their daddy "is that a boy or a girl" to which the daddy (bless his heart) "im not sure. but thats really nice hair!"...when do you say something? and what would you even say?
and this is why im starting to feel so strongly that church and state should be separated. its not about the straight people feeling their definitions of marriage have been "violated". its about protecting a minority. its about giving the law authority to act when the rights of the minority has been trespassed.
Well, to the people who drive by, you should smile, and wave kindly...
To the conservative people...you should hand them some of the free condoms you received at the Pride parade. (I'm sure their spirits would improve greatly.) Also, if you're feeling really generous, hand them a lei, or two...or some mardi gras beads. Shame on them for not marching!
For the little girl, and the dude...well...I have to give kudos to the dad for not making a spectacle of it. Even though he should have explained to his daughter that really wasn't an appropriate question to ask. However, maybe he did so later. You never know about these things.
About these types of things in general...I almost stopped caring a long time ago. I have too much to deal with in this life, than to let other people drag me down. They just want to make me as miserable as they are--and it's not going to work. I could only pray for them, or talk to God to bestow upon them the gift of common sense.
*christian hugs* Darrel
__________________
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Darrel, I disagree with you as far as telling the child that this is an inappropriate question to ask. I don't think it is. I don't think any questions are inappropriate for children to ask because they learn from the answers that we give them. When my son was very young I had a fairly close friend that was transgendered. Valerie had gone from being born a man to becoming a woman but she still had a very low voice more like that of a man's. My son would ask questions and at first I just told him that Valerie was a 'girl' but he knew something was up and insisted on calling Valerie "he" no matter how many times I told him. So eventually I explained to him about sex changes and even at his young age of about 4 or 5 he seemed to grasp the concept better than a lot of adults do. After that he started to call Valerie "she". Now when he encounters someone transgendered he sort of just shrugs and moves on. I'm proud to have raised my son to be accepting and open minded of all people.
And my personal opinion as far as speaking up is that we always should. There have been many times when I spoke up and I hope that even if I can change the mind of one or two people about the stereotypes of gay people that it will make a difference. A couple specific times come to mind. A number of years ago I was in Louisiana for Mardi Gras with my ex-girlfriend. We were staying in a very small town with a friend of mine and we were hanging around outside with some neighbors each night and had gotten to know them a little. At some point on about the 3rd night one of the guys made some derogatory comment about someone being a "fag" and I said "HEY, I'm a fag!" and after his shock wore off he apologized to me. We had gotten to know each other a little and he liked me enough that maybe it made him think twice next time.
The other example happened more recently. Jen and I were in Savannah and we went on a Spirit Pub Crawl. A woman overheard us telling someone we were from Los Angeles so she came up to tell us that she was from Philadelphia and that she rarely met people from big cities. Then she somehow started talking about how when she had first moved to Savannah that everyone kept telling her how she HAD to go to Club One. She said she finally went there and when she came out of the bathroom a gay guy was hanging on her husband and even when she told them she was married to him the guy kept kind of hitting on him. So she tells us "STAY AWAY FROM CLUB ONE! IT'S A GAY BAY!" I told her "Really? We didn't think there were any gay clubs in Savannah but could you tell us where it is because we're gay and we might want to go!" We didn't have any intention on going but I wanted to speak up. The woman didn't even blink but just changed the subject.
I don't know if me speaking up makes a difference but I hope it does. Most people that I meet when I'm out seem to like me and I hope that they can associate that with a gay person instead of some stereotype.
__________________
Going cold turkey isn't nearly as delicious as it sounds - Homer Simpson.
