Should people be allowed to be homophobic?

I think the concept of “allowing” people to think something is pretty ridiculous.

I think people can be whatever they want.
Smart, kind, self-centered, caring, humorous, stupid, beautiful, assholes… whatever.
I don’t have to like them for it though.

I’m not sure I understand what you mean by your question. Regardless of whether or not you agree with something someone thinks, you can’t allow or disallow them to think it. One cannot allow or disallow homophobia.

People are allowed to have all sorts of ignorant viewpoints.

I think that being homophobia is pretty much the same concept as being racist. You can’t stop someone from being homophobic or racist. You can only educate them and hope they change.

Having said that, you can’t outlaw opinions. It just doesn’t work that way.

We don’t yet have thought police, so there is no way to control whether people are homophobic or not. You can only enforce certain rules of behavior, such as you don’t hit other people unless you are in a boxing bout, you can’t steal their stuff no matter how much you disapprove of their lifestyle, and you can’t kill other people.

You can, however, refuse to hang out with folks who hold opinions you don’t like or consider ignorant.

They can think whatever they want. But I will tell you to fuck off if you say homophobic shit around me.

I think there is a whole continuum of thought between the two options you laid out, neither of which I subscribe to.

I support free speech and certainly free thought even though it includes thought and speech I personally dislike.

I would, however, never say that I am “happy for people to incite hatred towards gays or bisexuals”. It is one thing to have a viewpoint and quite another to incite hatred.

I cannot understand “being happy about” that.

allowed? and whos going to enforce this?

Given that we all agree that there’s no such thing as thought police and thus your question is slightly… wonky, do you mean allowed… legally? Because you can still be fired in a good number of states for being gay. Talk about ridiculous. No one would try to fight freedom of speech, but institutionalized homophobia is grating on my nerves.

Try to stop them.

Well…this user just bit the dust.

@johnpowell- Homophobic shit.

People should not be allowed to do certain things as opposed to them not being allowed to be or think certain things. Whether someone is homophobic or racist or anything akin to this, they’re all related to each other in that they’re all forms of bias and none of them are good for any reason. I’ve never understood someone’s predisposition to feel this way and I can only hope that they’d see the error in their ways and try to become a better person, with our without the aid of someone or something else.

Bottled water, bottled air, bottled energy drinks, canned speech’s…

Bottled thoughts have been a part of our lives since the beginning of story telling.

Astrochuck hits on a interesting point.

Why is the gay thing always reduced to “anal”? I know more lesbians than gay guys. And most of the gay guys I know only suck dick.

I would bet that half or more of people that hate same sex couples get turned on when two girls kiss. Two guys, not so much.

People should be allowed to be whatever they want to be.

@johnpowell- You were supposed to tell me to fuck off.

@johnpowell I know plenty of straight couples that are more into anal than gay guys that are into it. Personally, its none of my business who other people decide to love and share their lives with. Gay, straight, bi, whatever, as long as it is consentual, and as long as they are enjoying themselves, who really cares? What bugs me is when straight (read that redneck assholes) guys refer to gays as solely being into anal, when they don’t even know any gay people.

to each his own…

Would people be upset if I was metro-sexual-aphobic? Because its those “guys” that really creep me out.

Fuck off AstroChuck

Happy now?

I can agree with you on the anger and hatred issue, but some people are homophobic for deeper reasons than we would ever understand! In my experience (my brother is gay) he is faced more with the hatred and anger than any phobes! But how could we disallow is that a word people to be homophobic?

You are bisexual but are happy to incite hatred towards bisexuals? That is simply masochism and in your case I will allow it provided the hatred and humiliation is directed at you alone and not at other bisexuals. Enjoy the gratification of the pain you not only seek but take action to incite. Troll. See ya…..wtf

Personally I am not happy when anyone incites hatred toward others. I can’t imagine a single thing about it that would please me. If you are saying that you think people have the right to feel what they feel – no matter how ignorant – then you have a point. However, echoing what @johnpowell said, people may have the right to say obnoxious things, but others should have the right to punch them in the mouth for saying it – or at least give them a stern glare/nasty look combo. You are also right that you can’t stop people from saying what they believe, but honestly you don’t have to stand around and listen to them.

@whatthefluther has it. How did I miss it? How did anyone miss it?

@wtf,....lurve my smart friend!

@johnpowell- Yes. Thank you.

LoLz @Darwin “thought police”.
Pretty much you can’t enforce it and shouldn’t enforce it.

I had to think about this one a while as my initial reaction morphed a bit with of reflection. While there are no “thought police” that work in any kind of predictable ways, I would challenge that they really do exist.

They are the parents who allow children limited access to the world to impact what that child is permitted to know or only hear about after processed through the parents’ filters (this works for good and bad).

They are the TV newscasters who characterize stories in particular ways (e.g., only show outlandish bad behavior at gay pride parades while failing to show the admittedly boring doctors and lawyers, etc at the event). For example, we don’t show pictures of Mardi Gras to demonstrate how straight people “really are.”

They are the newspapers who print murders of white teens but move the death of the black teen further back in the paper (if mentioned at all). The same newspapers that somehow need to show the photograph of the black perpetrator or mention that the criminal was black. If race is not given, the person is presumed white . . .

They are the religious leaders who try to confuse their flocks by likening gays and lesbians to pedophiles.

The thought police certainly attempt to direct our thinking on a wide variety of topics. Gratefully, they are not always successful. It seems that there is a point, up to which, the masses can be pushed. After that point, it is the fringe element that still hangs on (e.g., the preacher who attends funerals of gay people with children carrying large signs indicating the deceased is going to Hell).

The “thought police” only seem to be effective on those who are unable or unwilling to think for themselves. Perhaps they should be called the “ignorance police” as that seems to be what is being enforced; their goals certainly don’t include rational thinking . . .

Human societies evolve. Homophobia will slowly become less widespread.

Gay is wrong , i said it is . Now make it so

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