Nothing left but the heebie-jeebies

Once upon a time, not too very long ago, it was pretty easy to not be accepting of homosexuals.  Homosexuals were criminals, they were perverts, they were sinners, they were mentally ill, they were unnatural and scary and different.  But not anymore.  These days it has become a lot harder to hold on to such beliefs.  Those who would still oppose homosexuality are finding themselves increasingly without a leg to stand on and for that very reason, support for equality is growing rapidly.

I think it all started unraveling when it was decriminalized and when healthcare professionals stopped considering it a mental illness.  After all, if these people were not criminals and they weren't ill, why shouldn't they be treated equally?

With homosexuality becoming more mainstream, more and more gays took the brave step of coming out and suddenly they weren't so different and scary anymore either.  Turns out they aren't perverts, they are our friends and family and our neighbours and some of our favourite celebrities.  It's easy to distrust a group you don't know but when you find out that someone you know and like is part of that group, it makes you look at it a little differently.

Surely it's still unnatural though right?  Well I previously wrote a blog post pointing out that homosexuality is found all over nature and is therefore completely natural in every sense of the word.  However last time my primary source was Cracked.com and while it's pretty informative, it's still a comedy website.  So here is a far more scientific (though still fun) video explaining how homosexuality is natural and compatible with evolution*.  (With bonus apology by Ted Haggard, which was nice) 



So then, it's not criminal, insane, perverted, different, scary or unnatural.  What about sinful.  Well, yes according to the Bible homosexuality is definitely a sin.  But so what?  There are tons of stuff in the Bible every good Christian is more than happy to ignore today because it doesn't make sense and no longer fits with our understanding of the world.  Why can homosexuality be one of them?  If you can grill porkchops and prawns on the sabbath then you can certainly be OK with the gays.  If you are born with it and you can't change it no matter how hard you try to pray it away, can it really be a sin?

So what reason can there be left to still hate on the gays?  Nothing but the heebie-jeebies.  I think that's were it starts for most people anyway.  Potholer makes a great point, for a straight guy thinking about gay sex is icky.  I certainly don't like seeing it much.  But so what?  Other things I find equally icky would be old people doing it, obese people doing it and any and all family members doing it (the list goes on but I'll stop it there).  But I don't begrudge them their right to do it.  I wouldn't dream of stopping them from doing it.  I don't talk about it (with the exception of this blog post) with other people so they can nod their heads and agree with how terribly wrong it is.  I don't try to have the laws changed to keep people who have icky sex from doing it.  What the old and fat and related do in the privacy of their bedrooms is their business so why not make the same exception for gays?

They're here, they're queer and you really should be used to it by now.  If you can't accept them then at least be honest with yourself as to why.  I bet that deep down, it's probably just heebie-jeebies.

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*It truly is amazing how many people who utterly reject evolution still like to point out that being gay could not have evolved and is therefore unnatural!