Such As They Were

suchastheywere:

I tried not to say this because it’s the interweb and peeps get offended on the interweb, but let’s just say that Obama made me do it.

So here I go
*ahem.

When anyone mentions human rights these days everyone jumps up in arms either for or against gay marriage. It’s…

Oh, trust me, I am angry about all those things. The fact that the government is reneging on their promised increases to foreign aid is partly what got me thinking about it. I completely understand the suffering of LGBT people, especially for non-religous people who are having to conform to a religous viewpoint that they don’t hold. What I’m frustrated about is that I’m having a hard time finding people who care enough about abolition to do anything about it, yet the streets are lined with rainbow posters. I don’t think it’s the media that’s the problem. I live in the middle of Sydney and the struggle for gay marriage is ingrained more in the social agenda than in the media agenda.

Belittling the fact the fact that the gay community feels ostracised or alienated is definitely not my intention. I do believe the Christian message is one of love and tolerance to a point (but that’s a conversation we should have in real life). But I still don’t think that the issue of feeling ostracised should be spoken about louder than the issue of freedom.

As for the fight for gay marriage helping us to understand people who are different from us, are they that different? I thought this was about seeing us all as the same. If we want to fight for social justice, why should we go along the path that edges closer to abolition instead of just directly targeting abolition.

In a perfect world, society would have the attention span for more than a few issues at a time. In my fight for social justice I’ve heard some horrific things; like stories about sex slaves who died when their building caught fire because they were chained to the wall, one of my friends was trafficked as a domestic slave in Turkey and escaped after an ordeal that she still can’t talk about. I’ve seen seven year old girls offering grown men blow jobs so they wouldn’t have to have sex with them. 70 percent of the sex workers at Kings Cross, in Sydney are slaves, often brought here with the promise of paid work.

I hear what you’re saying, but I can’t change my standpoint, even if I’m standing alone. I think freedom is more important than acceptance. That’s not to say acceptance isn’t important, but we need to prioritise.