What brings this up is a comment recently left on my Figment profile:
Thanks for the offer to swap! I liked your story 'Beloved' but as you've said several things I disagree with on your wall ('I don't heart swaps' and that homophobic bit about not being able to read about LGBT) I decided not to heart it.I haven't responded to this person, since these sort of people throw me in utter disbelief.
I don't agree with LGTB stuff, but that doesn't mean I don't have plenty of friends who do, or who participate in that. I have several bi friends, several gender-fluid friends, and a few lesbian friends--I don't think I know anyone who is gay or transgender, but I feel my point remains the same.
While I believe that LGTB is wrong, I don't discriminate against these people. I also believe that people can do whatever the heck they want, and that means they can go out and do stuff I don't believe in.
What gets me more about some of the people in the LGTB community (I do stress "some"; I don't know tons of them), or those who strongly support it, is that they're rude. I don't go, "I don't want to be around you because you're lesbian/bi," but I've had a few people tell me off because they don't want to be "judged" for having a same-sex boyfriend or girlfriend when all I've asked them to do is not talk so much about it around me, since I don't want to hear about that stuff (and I don't want to hear that sort of relationship gushy stuff about straight people). I don't tell LGTB people, "You're the devil's child!" It's not like I haven't sinned at all in my life.
This poster on my wall liked my story, but because she disagreed with who I am, she decided against giving me a heart (which I guess she deems highly important to me if she's going to use it to try and convince me that I should feel guilty for being "homophobic.") It's like, "Alright, I'm the 'homophobic' and 'bigoted' one, yet I'm not the one being rude here. That makes sense."
What this says to me is that it's alright to discriminate against someone because of their beliefs. Yet, if I went out and did something like that--"I won't give you a heart on this story you wrote that's great because you believe LGTB is okay even though your story had nothing to do with that stuff"--I would be burned at the stake.
America likes to pride itself on equality, but, while we truly are far better about it today, we appear to have a long way to go. I can't state my beliefs--exercise my right to say whatever I wanna say--without being discriminated against for it, which is exactly what LGTB people and activists claim to have a problem with: They can't be who they want to be without being discriminated against for it. While this has merit--LGTB have been treated very badly and sometimes quite unfairly--why they do this to other people is beyond me. It certainly doesn't win their side any brownie points.
What I'm trying to say here is treat people how you wanna be treated. If you are rude to people, expect rudeness in return; if you don't expect it, you're a hypocrite. Being nice to people doesn't always make people be nice to you in return, but at least you're being a good person.
P.S. I don't know why she doesn't agree with me not doing heart-swaps. Heart-swaps are cheating. Refer to earlier post.
P.S.S. The contest is FINALLY over. I don't think I mentioned this here, but Figment extended the deadline from the 26th of November to yesterday (the 5th of December) TWO DAYS before the contest ended, without warning. It was ridiculously irritating.
P.S.S.S. Edit: I lied. They extended the contest again. Jack wagons.
