… or so it should be. But reality looks different still.
If you know me, you will also know that I am an ally of the LGBTQ+ community and have been for many years. For me, with the exception of pedophilia, IT. DOESN’T. MATTER. whom you love. Plain. And. Simple. I don’t care if you’re straight, gay, lesbian, bi – as long as you are happy, it’s all that matters.
The fact that I am wearing a lovely PRIDE themed FC ST. PAULI beanie on this photo is, for once, not about football/soccer. I am still totally done with that sport for the largest part, and FCSP is not just about footie, it’s about making a statement. Against racism. Against homophobia. The punkrock. Left-wing audience. All that. What the club stands for thus is something I absolutely agree with, despite being done with football.
Moreover, I realized something about myself last year, something clicked into place. Something that had been all along most likely, but which never really dawned on me until this one moment when the penny dropped. But I am not fully ready yet to openly talk about this. Once the time is right, I will though! Bear with me, please. 😉 However, taken all that into consideration, I *HAD TO* order that beanie (I also have another one in rainbow colors which I LOVE.)
As stated above, for me, it doesn’t matter to me whom you love, as long as it is within legal terms. I also have some acquaintances who are part of LGBTQ+, which is yet another reason for Yours Truly to be an ally.
Thing is, I have read a couple of anti LGBTQ+ comments on instagram again recently, and quite frankly, those made me fucking SICK to my stomach. And yes, the motherload of those were coming from …Germans. I do know that in some countries, being LGBTQ+ is still entirely problematic, but did you know that, while gay/lesbian couples are allowed to get married here now, gay or bisexual men are NOT allowed to donate blood, UNLESS they stay sexually abstinent for 12 months? (source) Yes, you read that correct! Until 2017, there was a COMPLETE BAN for those! The bitter irony is that Germany is running low on blood donations, and yet, there’s a somewhat ban for people who are healthy, but “unfortunately” male and gay or bisexual.
Mostly, the reason behind that is that the donors in question could transmit diseases like HIV and HepC.
An account I follow on insta posted some screenshots of comments some asshats made about gays being forbidden to donate blood, and well, I wanted to throw up. “Good, because I don’t want to receive a single drop of gay blood, might turn gay myself!” Paraphrased, but you get the point. I was doing a double take to make sure I had read that correctly. But yep, someone stated they’d turn gay if they received a blood donation from a gay person …AND IF YOU ARE ACTUALLY KIDDING ME I ASKED!?
This is the 21st century, folks. I don’t know which rock you’ve been living under, or which kind of drugs y’all are on, but …are you SERIOUSLY believing that you’d turn gay if a gay person’s blood was injected into your body?? HOLY. MOLY.
But if you think this is the worst already, nope, there’s more. And not just about blood donations.
Why is it socially acceptable that a female person may wear suits, pants and the likes, but if a male person does that (wearing a skirt or dress, and if it’s just to entertain their kids during Carnival – or puts on some make-up) HELL. BREAKS. LOOSE?? Fuck’s sake, people. Basically every insult from “mentally deranged” to “need to be put into an asylum” to “disgusting” and “abomination” and everything in between popped up. Others droned on about how Christian values were being violated. Doesn’t anyone else catch on the open contradiction that on the one hand, the Bible says God loves EVERYONE but at the same time condemns homosexuality? Some others chimed in that they like the idea that homosexuals are stoned to death in some Islamic countries (for example Brunei).
I am FUCKING SICK of this crap. Really.
What some also seem to happily ignore in their hate is that same-sex relationships are happening in the animal kingdom as well. It’s nothing out of the ordinary, to be honest. And yet, some feel that being LGBTQ+ is still an abomination of whatever kind:
“They need to be straightened out!” (pun intended)
“They are a danger to our society and children!” (Because, you know, gay = child molester. Fucking. PUH-LEASE.)
“They are the prime example of what is wrong with our society!” (Really??)
“A father is a man, a mother is a woman, and not some fags!” (Uhm …??)
“God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve!” (Again, the open contradiction I mentioned above.)
“Put them into a nut house and convert them!” (Conversion therapy?? SERIOUSLY????)
I could go on forever, but I won’t. I am just in total disbelief when it comes to all those prejudices towards LGBTQ+ people. People who are HUMAN, too. They just happen to love someone of the same sex. Or both sexes. Or feel that they were born in the wrong body. It’s not something they chose. They were born like that. They realized at some point that they are different from the rest. And being different is not a bad thing AT ALL. On the contrary. (I mean, I know what I am talking about here, given that I have been the odd one out from the day I was born.) Like, you know – being LGBTQ+ is at the end of the day NOT a choice. “Homophobia” is.
In the end, it boils down to just one simple, yet powerful thing: LOVE.
And love is love.
Let me ask one last question: what exactly IS IT that you anti LGBTQ+ folks are so afraid of?
P.S.: a random thought that popped up in my mind while I was watching tv last night – y’all are so against men wearing skirts or dresses and make claims about Christian values. But somehow, y’all don’t seem to mind that priests, pastors, bishops and THE FUCKING POPE are wearing pompous clothes which are close to actual dresses … hmmmm …
Ocean Soul 