I'd rather take my chances in a room full of rattlesnakes.
However, while I think I understand your desire to help them, Br. Patrick, I agree with Meryl. People need a reason to hate. Their reason, more than likely a good measure of homophobia blessed with more than a good amount of misguided ignorance mixed religious conviction, is one of the strongest kinds of venom (hate).
We can't change them with love any more than they can change us with hate.
But we can wisely accept them as they are, like accepting rattlesnakes. Most earthly creatures, except those that eat them, stay out of striking range and move quickly away without hesitation.
Agree completely. Nothing we do is going to change them. THEY have to want to change. Heck and sometimes even when homophobes do change, they don't always change completely. Friend of mine is a homophobe. One year, he had a serious operation and was down and out for six weeks, laid up at home recuperating. I had lent him a bunch of books to read during his convalescence, but I never bothered to go see him (we were not that close at the time). The
only people who went to visit him was a gay co-worker and his lover.
He was very touched. After that, he liked this guy a lot, hung out with him, thinks the world of him...but he still thinks being gay is a perversion, that gays should not be married or have equal rights and that they should be kept away from children. Having a good experience with a gay person changed nothing about his homophobia. He believes what he believes and to change this particular facet of it would cause him to doubt his other beliefs and he doesn't want to do that.
