I was raised by my mother and father to treat everyone equally. Period. Regardless of color, creed, background, political choices, religious standings, intelligence, everything. All people are to be treated with the same respect and decency because they are all humans, just like I am. Treat others how you wish to be treated with no exceptions.
Now, I'm all for supporting groups that you believe in and expressing political opinions. But I can not stand all the flag waving that comes along with it. It comes across as begging for attention and affirmation for believing whatever you believe. It's silly and unnecessary and it irks me. I don't know where this 'red equal sign' stuff came from, but it immediately crawled under my skin and started making me itch. Here's why.
You don't get a pat on the back for believing the right thing. You don't get medals or awards or any recognition at all for believing that all people deserve the same rights regardless of how different they are. You know why? Because that's what EVERYONE should believe. You don't get rewarded for doing what you're supposed to at work. You get to keep your job. If you do less, you get negative consequences. I believe that everyone is entitled to an opinion, and I believe that everyone has lips so they can keep their trap shut about their opinions until it's an appropriate time to express them.
I don't care how many friends you have in the LGBT community. You can support them and their beliefs without shouting all over facebook about it and changing your profile picture and posting articles and essentially shoving your beliefs in other people's faces. That doesn't make anyone want to pay serious attention to you. It makes them want to walk away and find someone less pushy to talk to. I will pay increasingly less attention to people on facebook as the amount of opinionated crap they post increases.
News about LGBT related events or interesting articles is one thing. Posting inflammatory comments about people who disagree or telling everyone how wrong they are if they don't believe what you believe is entirely different. And changing your profile picture to the red equals sign turns your facebook from a place to interact socially into a political platform and lobbying scheme. It shows your support while alienating anyone who believes differently and instantly labeling you as 'one of those gay rights supporters'.
Let me say that again. One of THOSE gay rights supporters. There's a way to support things without drawing immediate negative connotations about what you believe. You have to understand that people will ALWAYS throw you into a box with the SINGLE supporter of a movement who left the biggest impression on them.
And before anyone starts up about 'freedom of speech', let me say one thing. You are entitled to your opinions, and you are welcome to speak out about them. But that doesn't mean that you're letting yourself be oppressed if you decide not to paste red equals signs on everything you own and get it tattooed over your heart. I'd rather someone know how supportive I am of the LGBT crowd by watching how I interact with them than by seeing my t-shirt or profile picture. Actions speak louder than words, and that includes any amount of junk you put online for others to see. It's easy to support something when a hundred thousand other people on facebook do it too, but it's a lot harder to walk it out in everyday life when you're faced with actual people and situations.
So, at the end of this VERY in-your-face rant, I'd like to say that your opinions are as valid as mine and you're welcome to tell me exactly what you think about all this. I'd love to hear what you think about the broadcasting of opinions on facebook and via other social media. And for anyone who I may have violently offended, shake it off. My opinion has absolutely no bearing on your emotional state. Don't give me that power over you, because making you angry was not my intention, and you're wasting your time being mad at me because I disagree with you. Take a deep breath, agree to disagree, and walk away.
And to anyone who says "If you don't like it, then don't go on facebook!", I say don't worry. I definitely won't be on facebook much for a while. I have better things to do than have people's opinions shoved down my throat for multiple hours a day.
I think you're misunderstanding the point of changing the pictures. While, sure, there's probably people who want attention because they're supporting a cause, that's true of a subset of folks when it comes to anything.
ReplyDeleteThe main point of a show of support is just that, a show of support. Most LGBT people grew up, and still live with, a considerable lack of support. People constantly belittling them for who they are, or belittling the things they have to go through.
From what I've herd from all my LGBT friends, that although they know it isn't actively changing things, seeing everyone on their facebook rallying together gives them hope, and gives them a physical representation of all the people who are standing with them in support.
I understand what it's for. What I was saying is that if you want to show support for your LGBT friends, you should send them a message telling them that you support them. Or, big thought here, tell them in person. Write them a letter. Leave a sticky note message in their kitchen. There are literally hundreds of ways to get across the idea that you support them in a more personal and direct manner. Changing your profile picture is a passive and indirect way of making that point, and it's completely impersonal. It allows people to rally together from the safety of their computer chairs, sure. But that lets them pretend they're one of the people who do actually care to raise awareness and work hard for LGBT rights. It belittles the actual activists by letting hundreds or thousands of people claim the same thing they actually live and walk out everyday in an incredibly cheap and facile manner. I think that as far as awareness goes, Facebook is a great way to spread a fire. As far as actual activism, there's only so much you can do from your computer chair.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that I didn't see your reply until now is pretty indicative of how much attention I pay to my blogspot OTL
ReplyDeleteAnyway, the point of the whole thing IS so everyone can see it. The point IS for everyone to be completely inundated with these images and declarations of support. The point is that the people who are still participating in prejudice against LGBT+ people are surrounded by those who disagree with them. It's a visual representation of a changing popular mindset.
Except that if all you ask of people is to change a profile picture, they're going to accept that by and large as all the contribution they ever need to make to be considered a great and mighty activist and pioneer of a movement. Which they're not. The people who go down to vote on bills and amendments and propositions, the people who go down to rallies and marches and parades, the people who spend every single day doing something to help out are the ones who make a difference. On the flipside, it's the people who do what's right BECAUSE it's right without trying to gain publicity or notice for what they do that make a movement successful. As far as LGBT is concerned, I happen to be surrounded by a lot more people who disagree with me than the ones who agree. Changing my facebook photo won't change their minds, it won't convince them that they're wrong, and it won't make them reconsider their own viewpoint and foundational beliefs. It draws a big ugly line down the middle of my personal social network. Nothing wrong with that being visible, but just showing someone that we disagree on a major issue won't reconcile anything.
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