It’s All Just The Same

Barack Obama has come out (pun intended) and voiced his support for same sex marriage ahead of his all-important second term run for the Oval office.  His supporters have said it’s the trump card he needed to secure another four years while his detractors say that it will be the last straw that breaks the camel’s back in his already fragile campaign.

Mitt Romney’s Republican Party alas the Tea Party is dead set about granting the LGBT community any civil union rights because marriage is about “procreating” in their books. While the liberal Democrats maintain it should not matter if two people want to get married regarding their gender.

This piece is certainly not about the complex American current political situation but it’s about whether two people of the same sex should be allowed to enjoy the same rights as everyone else. Black people in Africa and America where once oppressed because of their skin colour, should the gay community also endure such discrimination and prejudice because of the people they choose to have a relationship with.

Why are people so sensitive when it comes to the issue of same sex relationships? If it is not the church condemning it as biblically wrong, it’s heterosexuals claiming it’s unnatural. But are these the beliefs of a few or are there deep underlining factors that need deeper understanding when it comes to the laws of attraction.

 Having been watching a few medieval television shows lately, I have noticed the sexual relations between men are always present in these shows. Are writers simply using their imaginations in claiming they exited centuries ago or is society so repelled with these homosexual relationships that they condemn them as barbaric behaviour of the current generation?

Of course in a complicated subject like this, one has to tread carefully to avoid accusations of being callous when it comes to other people sexual preferences. What is attraction? How does one define this when they feel it? Does it know any bounds such as race, gender or nationality? Is it something that one can explain or you just know when you feel it?

Religious groups will quote the bible and say “A man shall not lie with another man like he would lie with a woman.” That’s their argument that God created a man and a woman so they could reproduce to grow the Creators children.

Only problem with that scenario is not all of the Earths inhabitants live their lives according to the teachings of David. They will retaliate by saying why should someone else’s beliefs determine the courses that their lives should take.

Popular soaps like Isidingo and Generations have both tackled gay storylines more or less in terms of the modern era. Generations shows a black affluent father and son falling out because the father does not understand his son’s sexuality. To him he would have preferred id he settled down with a young woman and extended the family name.

While Isidingo recently took the approach of a white conservative father who doesn’t want to accept his daughter’s new found lesbian tendencies. To him he always imagined his little girl settling down the conventional way. Now these may be TV characters but real life is not far off.

Life is complicated and sex makes it all the more complex. The issue of sexuality is so sensitive that some individuals would rather stay in the “closet” rather than subject themselves to discrimination and bullying. Now a lot of straight people will tell you that being gay is wrong, say it’s a sickness or unnatural! Now is this really the case or is society so conservative that it fundamentally fears anything it does not understand.

What constitutes a sound and healthy union? Is it having a man and a woman in a relationship or is love so powerful that it can develop between any two individuals regardless of their genetics?

A friend of mine said that society is to blame for all these negative perceptions when it comes to same sex relationships. He said that putting people in boxes and labelling them will never end well as it never did with Apartheid or the Holocaust for example. He went on to say that if you would replace gay with black in all these points, you would say why it is wrong to discriminate against homosexuals.

Is he right? Is society so frightened of change that it’s willing to condemn other peoples lifestyle choices as nothing but sin and immoral? Why do we as “straight” people have problems with the gay folk? If their fraternizing doesn’t affect us, why does it make so many heterosexual people disgusted what same sex couples get up to?

Does the question of being gay or straight define a person exactly the same way as being born black or white? Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King for the better time of their lives fought against being stereotyped because of their skin complexion! Do the same rules apply to the gay community or does race beat sexual orientation hands down when it comes to that debate?

Life choices are mostly probably the one thing that people judge other human beings on. What does he do? Is she a gold digger? His parents have bailed him out of jail a couple of times. I heard she accused her former boss of sexual harassment in her previous job! Are people what they do or is it the other way round?

Sex between a man and a woman is regarded as natural while the opposite is frowned upon. Why? Is it because they cannot pro create? Is it because woman on woman or man on man is something that our backgrounds have taught us it’s wrong and immoral? If so, why? If not, why not?

I guess in all these points that I have levelled or raised, my question still remains! How different is it to judge a person on whom they sleep with from judging a person based on the colour of their skin?  What two people do in the bedroom is there concern, so butt out (pun intended).