DADT Survey- What would you do if you were FORCED to shower with a GAY!?

[Jasper]

HE SAID THAT?! 

[DiscoUkulele]

HE SAID THAT?! 

It's the Onion, dear

[Doktor Howl]

That conversation would never happen, and the reason is that non-homophobic parents don't raise kids who beat up gays. Kids have to be taught homophobia, it doesn't come naturally.

I disagree.

My parents were/are not homophobic in the slightest.  Yet in high school, I participated in, and occasionally started, loud chanting of the word "AIDS" in the locker room when Don Thomas, who was at the time the only openly gay student in the school, was changing after or before gym.

It never bothered me at the time...In fact, I found it to be hilarious.

Later that same year, my friend Dave Pritchard came out.  I began avoiding him like the plague...Until one day, he sat across from me at lunch and asked me what my problem was.  I told him I didn't like the idea of gays staring at my ass. 

He laughed, and said, "Roger, just because I'm Gay doesn't mean I'm a rapist.  Besides, I don't find you in the least attractive."

Two thoughts hit my mind at the same time:

1.  "WHY NOT?  WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME?"  <--- Funny how your brain works.

2.  That I'd been a complete ass and a terrible person.  Here I was, avoiding a guy I'd been friends with for 4 years, for no good reason other than my own stupid prejudices...And I am still haunted to some degree by the idea of how Don Thomas must have felt when we tormented him in the locker room.  It's bothered me now for 25 years.

 

[BabylonHoruv]

The really funny thing is that the RAND Corporation, the go-to military contractor for all things study-wise, did an actual study in the early 90s, when the question about gays serving in the military arose - however because the report was too factual and foresaw no major problems with gays serving in the military, the Pentagon along with certain GOP house members moved to suppress the findings and instead relied on an assortment of religious cranks, homophobes and people off their meds to come up with arguments.

Because there really isn't. Because, believe it or not, homosexuals are just people, and are no more interested in straight people than straight people are interested in them. Nor do they find it difficult to work professionally with said straight people.

I think the faggots should get a survey asking whether the heterosexuals get in their way of basic everyday living and doing their job.

Bolded your basic problem.  Becuase we all know straight males are always gazing lustily at lesbians.

[Jasper]

When I can tell a person is a lesbian just by looking at them, it does not engender lustful stares. 

[Pope Pixie Pickle]

An actual relevant Monty Python reference.

my favourite monty python sketch, that one.

[BabylonHoruv]

IF SOMEBODY MADE ME SHOWER WITH A FAG I WOULD RAPE THE SHIT OUT OF HIM SO HE KNOWS I'M NOT A FAG TOO.

Might be funny if straight man on straight/gay man rape in the military wasn't a real and underreported problem.

IMO that is what makes it funny.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

OK, I will revise my opinion... I guess I was making a false assumption about the level of dialogue parents have with their kids about things like that. If non-homophobic parents talk to their kids a lot, and in doing to pass on their sense of social justice, kids will reject homophobia when it's introduced to them by their peers. IMO.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

The Right Reverend Nigel was wrong! 

[Doktor Howl]

OK, I will revise my opinion... I guess I was making a false assumption about the level of dialogue parents have with their kids about things like that. If non-homophobic parents talk to their kids a lot, and in doing to pass on their sense of social justice, kids will reject homophobia when it's introduced to them by their peers. IMO.

On the other hand, if I hadn't been raised the way I was, I wouldn't have recognized my behavior as wrong when confronted about it.

[Jasper]

Still, to me it's a bit hopeful to hear that, even someone raised into that mindset can still have an epiphany (or similar) and realize the problem.

I went to elementary schools whose absolute main focus was pro-tolerance.  We had huge MLK day events, and everything.  So I was, conversely, never given much of a chance to become a hateful, intolerant person.

Boo hoo, I know. 

[Elder Iptuous]

I grew up in a fairly intolerant (although not hostile) atmosphere, and yet i am willing to accept pretty much any behavior as long as it doesn't directly have a negative impact on others....

therefore we must defenestrate the notion of nurture in favor of nature.
we obviously have a tolerance gene that determines our outlook...

[Jasper]

You are but one.  You could just be mutated, like Dok.  Or bat boy.

[AFK]

Honestly, I think the best explanation, though seemingly a cop-out, is "nature and/or nurture"

From what I can tell, there are no absolutes.

I was raised in a fairly strict, religious family that didn't have a good view of gays and lesbians.  Yet, I grew up to be someone who grew up to not only be tolerant of the lifestyle, I've gone on to work alongside them on initiatives. 

It is likely the opposite also holds true.  A young person grows up in a very open and tolerant family, yet, through experiences and their personal interpretation of those experiences, builds an intolerance to a certain kind of person, in this case gays and lesbians. 

In both cases, a rebellion (purposeful or perhaps not) against the parental paradigms. 

And of course there are the scenarios where each hold on to and ascribe to the parental paradigms as they move through life, perhaps softening or hardening on the viewpoint, depending on experiences and their shrapnel. 

So I think the rebellion speaks to nature.  Something innate to the individual that chooses a path that is different from the parents. 
The sticking with the parent paradigm is the nurture. 

But then there is the nature and nurture.  The rebellion coupled with experiences in the environment that reinforces the new paradigm.

[Elder Iptuous]

yea. i was being silly.
it seems perfectly clear that nothing in human behavior is as simple as those who 'take sides' in the nature/nurture thing would present.