By Tim Trent (Dartmouth, England) OCT 24 | I never thought I'd be an activist, let alone a Gay Rights Activist. And it's not a simple thing to be. When I hear a bigot telling me that I ought to have different rights for the heterosexual majority I feel much more like lashing out that arguing with calm and quiet logic. Yet my instinct tells me that calmness will win a day which slash and burn invective will not.
Two articles made me think about this today. One is by Rob Donaldson the other is here by Brody Levesque. Both cover Dan Savage, and his vigorous defence of LGBT youth against discrimination and bullying. And each shows a different facet of Savage's defence. I like this guy!
When is a letter like Savage's very direct letter that Rob shows a valid thing to use?
I find that, with a bigot, neither works. Both of my regular and loyal readers will recall my homophobic cousin. Quiet logic failed on him after I came out. So did a more heated approach.
I spend some time on forums trying to show homophobic folk, surprisingly often Taliban christian folk, that my asking for equality of rights deprives them of no rights at all. They tend not to notice this and tell me that I am an abomination and am against their deity. I use logic. I have a fund of remorseless logic. Because my parents chose it I am better educated (note that I have not said 'more intelligent', nor would I argue it; I am just better educated.) than many of them and I can run rings around them with logic.
Infinitely more satisfying would be to smite them with the blood red sword of invective. And it would be far quicker, too!
He stops far short of invective. He recognises that he will never woo the bigot. All he has to do is to woo the undecided folk. And his letter to the bigot will woo the undecided.
Unless, of course, you disagree
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