I'm sorry, but something irked me and I have to input...nothing directed at you (INSERT NAME HERE) I get that you are just being supportive.
(INSERT MY FRIENDS NAME HERE) is feeling the "Pain and anger" that EVERYONE should be feeling. I hurt just as much as (Friend I referred to earlier) when 49 LGBT people are targeted and killed. I understand he might have a closeness that I can't understand exactly to the issue, and I sympathize and respect that.
I am white, male, straight, educated- I'm privileged. I recognize this. If anyone would like to tell me I don't know what I'm talking about, I fully concede. I am not intimately connected to the LGBT community in a personal way, however I don't see what distinguishes myself from “Them” besides the discrimination and labeling that some would argue is necessary.
When a terrible event occurs such as the shooting at the nightclub in Orlando, I would say that Human beings are being targeted. People that would separate LGBT people from the community in a way that would dis-empower, marginalize or romanticize them, are acting divisively. .
People are people. 49 people were shot and killed in Orlando, We all grieve together. 49 of us, no matter race, sexual orientation, religion or lack thereof were murdered. I feel very strongly about this, and cannot state this clearly enough. I know most supportive people already FEEL this way, but have just not become accustomed to understanding it this way.
Labels create division. Labels create confusion. Labels are an outdated means to a dangerous and manipulative end. Dispensing with these useless labels when considering tragedy is a prudent first step towards the realization that we all grieving because we’ve all been targeted. All of us are the same people. I grieve for my and your fellow human-beings..
I’ve grown physically sick of those that would attempt to correct their words and use the “appropriately respectful” terminology in regards to “X”- Where x is the latest trending minority or targeted sub-category of people. This sickens me, as it strikes a chord in direct opposition to an idea of equality and sameness.
Humans are all that exist. I am exhausted by this labeling, I am sick and tired of different standards, I am brought to my wit’s end by the abuse of privilege, and I strongly resent anyone that would try to tell me that I do not have a place in someone’s experience solely because I don’t understand someone else. I don’t fail to understand other people because of my religion, my skin color, my race, or my sexual orientation. I don’t fail to understand other people because I am not them. My lack of understanding comes from humans living though different experiences in their lives.
Referring back to a speech I admire, given by my country’s leader, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau I believe is a valuable action. Mr.Trudeau spoke these words,
“You want a Prime Minister who knows Canada is a country strong, not in spite of our differences, but because of them, a PM who never seeks to divide Canadians, but takes every single opportunity to bring us together. You want a Prime Minister who knows that if Canadians are to trust their government, their government needs to trust Canadians, a PM who understands that openness and transparency means better, smarter decisions.”
Generally I wouldn’t offer much credit to the semantics of politics, but this speech’s nouns can be removed completely, and you may then transform these words in such a way as to apply in other situations as you see fit. Take for example that, “Humans are strong because of our differences, not in spite of them.”
I tire of being told that “the Muslims” are the problem. I’m tired of being told that “Irish people drink too much”. No, they that hold these views are simply stated, wrong- and I mean in most meanings of the term.
Humans drink too much. Humans hold laughable beliefs in outdated ideas that could do with modernization. Humans hurt each other in the name of falsities and political gain.
Any person who would say that there exists a division between people and that a change is required by only one group out of such...I would strongly urge to re-think precisely what that implies. Also I must urge you to consider that image, and apply it to whatever could be said in response to this article.
Humans are Humans. Hold them accountable. Protect them. Make friends with them. Hate them. Love them. Disagree with them. We must always remember that we are all cut from the same material. We all possess the dark, and we all also have a share of light. One mustn’t allow for such arrogance as to assume that they or anyone else has somehow become elevated above the rest.
I hope that people in future generations perhaps 50 years or 100 years, will reflect on what is now our current situation. I hope historians of the time derive only a lack-luster sense of confusion with regard to our taboo of speaking about sexual orientation or race. I hope that humanity finds no understanding, nothing in common with that, and I pray the experts of this distant day are the only one’s that may contextualize the hate and pain that we now are capable of inflicting upon one another. I would fantasize that this is but an ephemeral moment in the long story of our social evolution, and that this remains unique to this time and our history and that we spar our descendants this legacy.
