Saturday, January 30, 2010

Prop 8 - Testimony from The Unknown

When I first realized my attraction to girls, I went into a long-time research over it. First, I wanted to be sure if it's a disease or not (coz everybody said it's a disease), maybe how I can get rid of it. Second, if being gay makes me an abnormal or weird person. I'd never seen any representation of a gay person before. And third, if it's a sin. Honestly that's the only thing I can't resolve until now. Problem is, I can only believe in what I feel. I'll never know what God really thinks.

Do you know what makes me choose to walk on this path in the end? It's because in every article, in every forum, in every dialogue or debate about gay rights or being gay at all, there is a very clear difference. The anti-gay people always talks about fear. "Burn in hell", "Jesus hates fags", "gay marriage threats traditional marriage", "the gays will teach children about sodomi", etc. "Disgusting, abnormal, abomination, unnatural, sin, etc" is among their favorite words. But the argumens in the gay side always talks about love. It's among, "We shouldn't judge people," "Respect difference", "I'm proud of my gay son/daughter/friend/parents/etc", "Love is stronger than blood", etc. True, the cases are sometimes reversed. There are anti-gay people who can actually think cold-headedly and logically, and there are some gay people who are downright rude. But in most cases, it's totally clear to me which side is 'right', according to my heart. It doesn't even matter to me if I'm gay or not. Even if I'm straight I'd still support gay rights, just like I'm not Jewish but I'd be against Hitler anyway.
I always want to be married someday. It doesn't matter much if it's legal or not for now because I don't want to wait until Indonesia makes it legal. But because of that, I want to support people who are 'almost' be able to get married. Besides, it's really a harmless thing. What difference would it be to your life if your neighbour is married or not? You can still pretend they're roommates if you want to. But being married is crucial to them, it affects many aspects in their lives. Face it, the hullaballo of Prop 8 has nothing to do with 'traditional marriage', children wellbeing', much less 'sanctity of marriage'. It's simply a political force of an organized religion. They fear that if gay marriage is legal, people will question more about their dogmas and rules, and therefore makes them leaves their church. Again, it's based on fear. And it's totally political, not religious, because those people will not lose their faith. They will only move to churches who is more open-minded. For people with strongly political minds, it's dangerous.

I don't wish for a 100% vote for NO on 8. I just wish, since it's 2010 already, people would be wiser and learning well from history. It's not the first time that one minority group of people being bullied, and it won't be the last. If you don't stand up for them now, when it's your turn to be bullied, there'll be no one left to stand up for you.

Love or fear. It's your choice now.

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