Do you know what's worse than people who hate you ?

[UndertheOcean]

People who dismiss you altogether .

I talk to many non Western people , and Gay rights sometimes come up. A common thread , thought , point of view keeps coming up , it being that this is a propaganda issue manufactured by the West , does not exist in our societies , or exists but is no problem , its just that no body talks about it.

Manufactured issue , by the West ? "FUCK YOU" is the response that comes to mind at the time , but I am forced to be polite and argue for acknowledgment first.

[AndyTiedye]

1. When They Say Their Country Hasn't Got any Gay People

One has to wonder what they did to them all.

[madeline_con]

2. Gays are hanged in Iran. Hence, Ahmadenijad's claim

there are no gays in Iran. :eyes:

[Independent_Voice]

3. Or, my favorite... *sarcasm*

"But that's only one issue."

[Malikshah]

4. There was some figure from the 19th century who said

something along the lines of...

It is good to have both friends and enemies. Going through life to have only one or the other is not being true.

Only interesting people have friends and enemies.

[closeupready]

5. If they are educated people, ask them to explain the poetry of Abu Nuwas.

You know, that guy they've named hotels, city squares and boulevards after. ;)

But seriously, yes, it is frustrating to be dismissed. My gaydar goes off when I meet people like that, and I refuse to get involved with them.

[sui generis]

6. the difference is they live in a world where anyone in authority

is speaking the truth, by virtue of authority only. We don't understand them, and they don't understand why we find their statements so absurd.

The underlying truth is, they would't be killing us in those countries if we didn't exist.

The underlying truth is they are evil, backwards, petty little people today, regardless of any historical context to those cultures. They do what they do where they do because they have the power to do it there.

As much as we hate the idea that they're torturing and killing gays, they have been torturing and killing anything that challenges the idea of paternalism, including women making their own choices, people eloping and marrying outside of patriarchal arrangements, losing their virginity before marriage, and on and on.

Hell, our very own beloved bible (lower case b) has all kinds of instructions for how to deal with cuckholds, rapes, and missing maidenheads, all designed for consolidating male power in a goatherder society.