- Villanizing the portion of the population who are against sexual minorities. Trying to shame people en masse into doing the right thing rarely works. A more effective approach would be to offer enlightenment.
- Attacking people's faith and religions. This approach fails because its not the faith or religion that is the problem, its the specific doctrines of individual denominations and congregations.
And one can't shame a person who has a heart-felt belief in a particular religion--Christian, Muslim, et. all. This 'shaming' backfires because it doesn't consist of logical arguments or discussion of that part of a religious doctrine which may be open for interpretation. I'm thinking specifically of homosexuality. Instead, the resorting to name calling, wagging fingers at someone, and/or down right making fun of one's religious beliefs isn't healthy in a country where more than not have a faith based foundation. Then, to top it off, to have the likes of Perez Hilton or Jeanine Garofalo dress someone down because he or she happens to stand on principles similar with a MAJORITY of the populace, it is no wonder more states are following the footsteps of California and we are further from same-sex equal rights then we were a couple years ago.
- Confusing the core objective of civil rights with emotional objectives: "its about love." No, its not about love. Its never been about love. Its about equal standing under the law.
But Milo, as we have seen here repeatedly, it isn't about equal standing under the law. If that were the platform, those equal rights would have come easy. People need to get over with the cry baby mantra of, "well, If I can't be married just like my mom and dad, I don't want it". Thing is, most of the people that cling to this don't even have partners. They are so fuckin' busy trying to force acceptance of them because they have held such a chip on their shoulders or they were badgered or made fun of at one point in their life, they become blinded by the 'rights' issue, and seem to have the inability to settle down with one person for the long term.
- Too much emphasis on what has been done to us, rather than on what we need going forward. Yes, defining the problem is important. But there are too many communications out there that do nothing but lay blame.
Gotta make up for lost time. I'm sure there will be some sort of organized reparations effort at the end of the day. Perhaps a second career for Barney Frank.
- Overstating the state of affairs for sexual minorities. We are not oppressed, persecuted, etc. What I perceive is that we are inconvenienced and discriminated against. Oppression and persecution look more like what's going on in Muslim countries; e.g., arrests, honor killings, murders, and executions.
No, we aren't persecuted or oppressed. Clinging to this ridiculous notion makes it very easy for those opponents to roll their eyes and mutter, "whatever". If there is so much oppression and persecution, where is it? I have been in the law enforcement field for many years, and I ain't seein' it and statistics aren't there to back up such claims. Yeah, there is inconvenience and discrimination in two areas--legal rights of married couples (I didn't say marriage) and the right to serve in the armed forces. IMO, we still have these inconveniences because of the
tact with which most gay rights proponents and lefties insist we take.
- The "marriage or bust" philosophy. As one poster here on Bettermost reported, New Zealand has managed to achieve legal parity for sexual minorities via civil unions. If they could do it, we can too.
You don't get it, Milo. It's gotta be marriage. People can't think a man and women equals marriage. They must not see a difference and need to think whenever the term marriage is used, one shouldn't assume anything. Hmmmmm. Feel good politics and not a damn thing about equal rights.
- Blurring the line between civil rights and social acceptance.
No amount of legislating can get a person to accept another. Forget the acceptance, lets move on to legal rights. Once that is outta the way, if one expects to be accepted, one has to be accepting.
Brad