Through the Negative Looking Glass III

I have talked at length in past posts about our society's back is front, right is wrong, etc... turn for the worst in the last 3 decades. But I had to post about this one more time. In reading an article today on CBS's website about Tim Hardaway's phone interview, I realised something shocking. In American pop culture it is no longer acceptable to abhor homosexual behavior. No, I did not say homosexuals (meaning the actual people) although that is even more taboo. No, I said and meant that if you come out against men having sexual relationships with other men and women with other women you are homophobic & a bigot. Now lets examine those two words for a moment shall we? According to ReligousTolerance.org...

The word "homophobia" was invented by George Weinbert who defined it as "the dread of being in close quarters with homosexuals." It grew to mean a general "fear of homosexuals or of homosexual behavior."

According to Wikipedia though, which is usually pretty accurate it has taken on a half a dozen different meanings,

Homophobia is the fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexuality or homosexuals.^[1] It can also mean hatred, hostility, or disapproval of homosexual people, sexual behavior, or cultures, and is generally used to insinuate bigotry.^[2] The term homophobic means "prejudiced against homosexual people,"^[3] and a person who is homophobic is a homophobe.

So really what they are saying is that you can call someone a homophobe for something as simple as taking a gay guys parking space, or as complex as oh, I don't know, saying you wouldn't want a gay team mate changing & showering with you in a locker room.

Next the oft coined word "Bigot" or "Bigotry" again according to Wikipedia,

A bigot is a prejudiced person who is intolerant of opinions, lifestyles, or identities differing from his or her own. Bigot is often used as a pejorative term against a person who is obstinately devoted to their prejudices even when these views are challenged or proven to be false. rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr(sound of brakes screeching).

Hold up one minute. If we accept this definition then we also have to look at the word "intolerant". Another term bandied about by those who use the word bigot and homophobe a lot. Let's hear Philosopher Karl Popper's assertion in "The Open Society and Its Enemies" shall we?

He states that among other things,

In particular, should a tolerant society tolerate intolerance? What if by tolerating action "A", society destroys itself? Tolerance of "A" could be used to introduce a new thought system leading to intolerance of vital institution "B". It is difficult to strike a balance and different societies do not always agree on the details, indeed different groups within a single society also often fail to agree. The current suppression of Nazism in Germany is considered intolerant by some countries, for instance, while in Germany itself it is Nazism which is considered intolerably intolerant.

If you take that last part and substitute the word Homosexuality for the word Nazism and the word Christendom for the word Germany (not that I am comparing Christians to Germans by any means) it is easy to see why a reasonable person who, simply but vehemently, disagrees with the homosexual life style and its effect on our society might take offense to being called a homophobe and/or a bigot because they are not tolerant of a person or group's destructive and harmful behavior. Or maybe they just feel that in certain situations said behavior might be inappropriate and subject to moral scrutiny.

Lets take Mr. Hardaway's comment about not wanting a homosexual team mate in his locker room. If you were a woman basketball player would you want a man showering with you and watching you undress? Well I suppose it would depend on the man and on you but generally I think the answer would be no because... wait for it... it would be inappropriate. Why? There is a privacy issue where sexual attraction is involved and whether you are a man or a woman you should have the basic right to not be stared at and ogled while you undress and shower. Actually I will go farther, you should not even have to worry about the possibility of being ogled while undressing or showering. In my mind being in the locker room with a homosexual is like being in the locker room with someone of the opposite sex... Not cool!

So to bring this all back around to my original point, those who throw around terms like Bigot, Homophobe and Intolerance should take a step back and look at the larger picture. It may just be that your Intolerant attitude towards Intolerance is itself bigoted and Intolerable!