Friday, May 8, 2009

Tyra Takes on Same Sex Marriage

I have a hard time talking with people who believe sexual orientation is a choice. Literally, i shut down and am unable to further "debate" with them about rights because i recognize that they see gays and lesbians as "lesser than," "other," and nothing i say will ever change their mind. I am all for tolerating opinions different from my own but this isn't a topic i can tolerate a range of values on because for me, it's so basic and so essential. Denying someone human rights because you think their sexuality is something they should "control" or something they can "change" is absurd. Did you wake up one morning and "decide" to be straight? Seriously, is this something you thought about and made a conscious decision on? No.

Tyra Banks did an episode yesterday that i want to post here, because i thought a lot of it was really good. But more than that, it presents a very real display of bigotry, intolerance, and people who claim to be "Christians" when in fact they are just using the bible as an excuse to hate, which is very very not Christian of them. They are the same people who think homosexuality is a choice and a sin. For example, in one of the segments the woman says, "I see emotional and mental instability" as one of the audience members emotionally shares the discrimination and violence he has faced in his life for his sexual orientation. She does not show empathy, she does not show love or support. She laughs, on stage, and tells the world he's emotionally and mentally instable. Shame on you, lady.

Tyra had Sandy Rios on (who IS this woman?!) who had lots of quotable gems, such as:

"You can stop being gay, you cannot stop being black"

"As a fully heterosexual female i can tell you how difficult it is not to have sex, too. So i can understand that dilemma" She was asked, "is celebacy the answer?" Her reply: "yes, as apposed to acting out homosexuality or adultry or pedophelia, yes.

"When you talk about discrimination and the misery of being a lesbian, gay upfront is the wrong name for that. It's broken hearts, it's disease, it's unnatural." (just for the record, the woman she was talking to never said being a lesbian made her miserable...)


If you have time, and can tolerate Tyra, watch the show, "Gay is the New Black." If nothing else I want you to see the "arguments" that same sex marriage opponents make. I want you to hear the intolerance, bigotry, and hatred that they spew and I want you to see exactly why i have such an unbelievable difficult time "debating" with people like this in my own life. Primarily because there is nothing i can say that will ever make them hate less, love more, and celebrate diversity.

I posted it here from youtube which had it split up into four video. I only included the last part of the show because that's the one that had a lot of what i discussed above:



Just don't read the comments on youtube, or else you're get lots like this one:

Ginne86 (12 minutes ago)
"Being gay IS a choice, just like fat people can choose to eat fast food or you can choose to eat healthy. even though healthy food dont tastes as good as fast foods."


7 comments:

Vinny said...

Sandy Rios is a Chicago Christian talk show host. Several years back, my son appeared in a production of The Laramie Project at a suburban Chicago high school. This stirred up several local homophobes who were supported by Sandy the Twit. Eventually one of them got on the school board and started trying to get any book that dealt frankly with sexuality removed from the curriculum. Rios is utterly and completely ignorant.

Anonymous said...

I've never had a conversation with any of these people, other than the one-sided type where the men, they shout insults, threats and make gestures like they are going to smash my face. The ladies of the religious kind never talk to me directly at all besides the occasional forced salutaton.

I can't imagine trying to convince these people of anything. I feel that the people of the earth who have an interest in self-actualizing have connected with their inner truth, and this is the magic that connects us all together, because there is that one truth. The people who have not found their inner truth are usually in despair, which leads to finding others who are in the same stuck place - this is how the churches keep their 'flock' bolstered. Once they are in the flock, the deep programming begins and the enemies of the church are nmarked etc.

My sister was drawn into a cult in the seventies and I had to rescue her (she had escaped already, but I just had to go get her). I don't see the difference between cult and religion.

Anyway, I like your site (and your fab jewelery, which I want to get some of, but I need to transfer funds to my paypal account first)

happy weekend! B.

Amelia said...

I just watched that clip for the first time after reading transcripts.

How utterly disgusting and hateful some people can be.

I just can't wrap my mind around it, and I feel so badly for people who have to suffer from being treated this way.

DJ Dual Core said...

My family left a church that had a lot of other good things going for it because of its position on homosexuality. Modern evangelical Christianity has a really twisted sense of morality which may eventually bring it down. Actually, as someone who cares about the teachings of Jesus, I'm kind of hoping for that.

Ironically, the modern churches with the most loving messages these days are big, old, top-heavy, bureaucratic denominations--the ones governments used to want in their pockets. Now the Republican Party US is in bed with non-denominational and Baptist leaders, many of whom head organizations that have existed for less than 20 years.

So the politicians and the religious leaders agree on an enemy to organize their constituents against. The better it works the more power they have.

It's pretty disgusting and, of course, none of the people involved--at any level--want to hear you talk about it. I'm much happier now that I've given up trying to reform American evangelicalism.

Becca said...

Exactly, I just posted today on this same episode. I could not believe Tyra would have someone so obviously homophobic as Sandy Rios to argue the opposition.

Wendy said...

Not all so-called Christians practice hate. In fact, those of us who believe it is a personal decision and not an inherited faith, find it an abomination how our faith is represented in media.

Then again, a Christian who believes we are called first of all to LOVE is not going to be very interesting to report on in the news, right?

The problem is, most Christians right now inherited their faith. They haven't thought it through & they don't really know what they believe. So they just repeat something they heard somewhere.

Most of the arguments I hear between gays & Christians annoy the crap out of me because I NEVER see my opinion. Maybe I'm just too inclusive and that doesn't make for good TV.

I won't assume that the gays I see on TV represent YOU if you will stop assuming the crazy "Christians" you see on TV represent ME.

darklogos said...

Thing I find interesting is tolerance word. But it only goes one way. It goes into "accept my beliefs or I shun you." I see that in the blog commentary. In the end I see is just intellectual aggression to conflicting ideas and you wanting conform people to a way of thinking.

There is a difference between major religions and cults. The first is the general practice of public teachings. Everything is out in the open. Christianity for example has precepts in the New Testament against those who teach in secret because the gnostics pulled that trick. Judaism has extensive teachings that can be found in the Talmud. Second there are certain psychological techniques that are found in cults such as sleep depervation and forced isolation of the individual from their family. This doesn't happen in any major world religion. Just because religious expression can get odd or weird it doesn't make it cultic.

Only in the this era is the sex drive seen as some unstoppable force that can't be controlled or gained mastery over. The common view is that who a person is determined more by their genes then their envoirment. But we know it is a mix of the two when it comes to human behavior and expression. The arguments used for homosexuality, on terms of biology, do not fly for other sexual expressions even among some of the liberal. What do you do with polyamourous, a person who can't stay loyal to one spouse and needs many spouses (male or female), the autoerotic, and the sexually non-interested. Do we say that is all biological and that they are in turn slaves to biological causality?

I'm a christian. I see homosexuality as a sin. If someone came to me and said they struggle with it then I would do the best I COULD to help them and love them. If they fall I help them get back on the path. If your not a christian go have sex with whoever you want because the precepts of Christianity are not for you live out. For those in the faith the bible calls us to a level of interaction in spite what the world says.

Love is not condoning and accepting for accepting sake. Love in a Christian context is serving, patient, kind, not easily angered, not a mocker, and self-sacraficing. In no point does it describe accepting sin to make people feel accepted. I know that this probably won't be posted but I had to at least give a sound biblical response from a non-white male theologian.