shelby_danvers | Homophobia Sucks.

Homophobia Sucks.

Lately, I've joined in with a large Facebook campaign dedicated to getting homophobic pages deleted from the site. Now, for a little bit of context, let me point out that when I say 'homophobic', I don't mean something like 'homosexuality is a sin' or 'I don't agree with homosexuality'. I'm talking about the ones that flat-out ridicule, degrade, threaten, or otherwise make Facebook a less safe place for us.

It feels like fighting a losing battle, let me tell you. Facebook has the responsiveness of an elderly sloth on sedatives when it comes to dealing with this stuff, and by the time one hate page is removed, five more have popped up in its place.

It's heartbreaking to see so much hatred levelled at the LGBT community. Especially when the hate is grounded in ignorance and misinformation. I can’t help but wonder where it comes from. Did they learn it from their parents? From school? From society? Where did they learn that it was okay to treat people like this? That it was okay to treat other people like we’re some sort of diseased animal?

That's a point I always try to make when I jump in on these debates. We're not talking about TEH GAYS!!1! here. We're talking about living, breathing, feeling human beings. Just because we're gay doesn't mean we're not people. It's so obvious yet it feels so overlooked.

I grew up in an ignorant home. My parents were known to say that gay people were 'disgusting' on several occasions. And that was a mindset that I unfortunately adopted. Gay people were wrong, gross, sick in the head, whatever. I was ignorant.

I was saved from homophobia by…well, being homosexual. There’s nothing quite like standing on this side of the fence to realize how wrong the other side can be.

I don't know if my family’s opinions have changed since I came out. I'm pretty sure they're just ignoring it so long as I don't bring home a girl. I would like to believe that they have gotten over it, that they now see how wrong and hurtful it was to expose me to homophobia as they did. But I don't know. I suppose that is another objective in my mission to fully come out again, to discover if I've changed their minds.

I hope that, one day, I can live in a world where homophobia is considered just as wrong as racism. Where people - no matter gay, straight, or bi - stand up against it. Where Facebook takes less than a week to delete a page calling for the death of all f*gs.

But I'm not holding my breath.