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He donated money to prevent gay marriage. It's not really much of a stretch to conclude he's a homophobe. His intentions are pretty transparently obvious.
by beedogs 13y ago
He donated money to prevent gay marriage. It's not really much of a stretch to conclude he's a homophobe. His intentions are pretty transparently obvious.
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- joelrunyon 13y ago> homophobe This is always an interesting word definition to me. Just because someone donated against something, might mean he's against it it, but doesn't mean he's "scared" of it (the definition of "phobia" being "fear"). The equivalence of the two words into it's current meaning has always been interesting to me.
- MichaelGG 13y agoI, too, dislike the "phobe" applied to things - it seems like a dirty bit of rhetoric. But despite the definition, it's pretty clear the meaning of homophobe is someone that dislikes/disapproves of homosexuality.
- joelrunyon 13y agoI know that & get it, but by choosing that word itself, it becomes a loaded & inaccurate word which hurts the argument (because which many anti-gay marriage people can easily refute the accusation by simply saying "that's ridiculous, I'm not scared of gay people").
- beedogs 13y ago"I'm not scared of them; I just hate them and don't want them to be married, for no rational reason."
- joelrunyon 13y agoYour response indicates you've likely spent little-to-none meaningful time with any of the people you're attributing words to. Very few people I've met that hold those views would say that's an accurate view of their beliefs (WBC not withstanding, but they're outliers).
- beedogs 13y agoI don't think any time I'd spend with those types of people could ever be meaningful. Honestly, they can say they're "not scared of gay people" all they want, but the actions of a person who would donate their money or time to get same-sex marriage outlawed speak much, much louder than their words.
- joelrunyon 13y ago> I don't think any time I'd spend with those types of people could ever be meaningful. That's the same attitude you're accusing them of. It's not helpful on either side of the debate. There's a difference between being scared & disagreeing. Your refusal to acknowledge the difference says more about your desire to perpetuate your viewpoint of them rather than attempt to understand their background. It's one thing to disagree with someone, it's another to refuse to come to the table with them at all in the first place. I think we could continue to go back & forth all day, but you don't seem very open to the idea of listening to people with opposing viewpoints :).
- beedogs 13y agoNot really, I just think you've done a very poor job of equating "a difference of opinion" with "civil rights". And that's really what it boils down to: the anti-same-sex marriage side is just wrong on this one. And wrong opinions don't deserve respect.