by Buddy Netter

Created on: March 22, 2009   Last Updated: August 13, 2011

Just How Homophobic Are We, Anyway?

I keep trying unsuccessfully to have Helium remove all articles I have written about homosexuality.  I do not care if adding this disclaimer hurts my rating; I just want to say that I no longer agree with what I have written below.  I thought I knew something, but I don’t.  I have since made a gay friend and knowing someone and what they go through has changed my heart.  The bottom line is that we are all human beings and worthy of rights.  I am deeply sorry and ashamed of things I have written negatively about anyone and if I could, this and all the other articles about this subject would be forever removed from my written work.

Homosexuality has once again dominated the spotlight due to the vote against same sex marriage in California this election, and the movie Milk has also added fuel to the fire. California seems to be split down the middle on this subject. If you are against same sex marriage, then you must be a hateful, bigoted person, not to mention homophobic.

As I examine this issue and read what others have to say, a common theme I keep seeing over and over among the young writers is the phrase, "I have lots of gay friends." Well, this writer has never had a gay friend and can count on one hand the number of gay people I have ever been aware of. People weren't "coming out" when I was in school, so homosexuality was never an issue or something most of my generation even thought about growing up.

Although I was a born and raised Christian, I turned against my religious upbringing in my late teens and decided that I was agnostic, i.e., I didn't know for sure there wasn't a God, but I'd be damned if I was going to follow His rules, at least as I understood them from my religious teachings. To set the stage for where I was during this mind set, I was a member of the Woodstock generation, all for love and peace and whatever turns you on. I was extremely sympathetic towards the underdog, a huge supporter of civil rights and out of all of that, I became a feminist. It was the natural turn to take for a sympathetic woman like myself, as when I looked at all the downtrodden people of the world, no matter what culture, no matter what group of people, women were always the lowest on the pecking order.

As a feminist, my "sisters" tried to tie gay rights in with our own. The gay community also wanted this, as there was support in numbers. I don't know why, but even though I was sympathetic towards

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