What is Intolerance?

United States
May 31, 2009 6:33am CST
Over the past few days, I've seen the whole homosexual subject brought up and discussed furiously. As far as my opinions on the matter go, I simply do not know. I say that I do not know because, well, I do not know. My stance, simple and, at least to me, logical: I want more information--science would be nice--about the subject of homosexuality, i.e. born with it or not, sprung from trauma, lifestyle, etc... For this view, I've been called intolerant and a homophobe. Is that just liberal slander, or do people actually call questioning a lifestyle they don't readily understand "intolerant"? It's baffling. By that loosely wound standard, anything thrown at you that you disagree with leaves you wide open to be labeled as intolerant. I guess I'm intolerant of climate change taxes and large government, too, but that's another story entirely. What is intolerance? This isn't the Clinton fiasco, so we're not defining what "is" is. It's simple and to the point. Intolerance -- what is it? Does the belief that marriage should be between a man and a woman make you intolerant? Does questioning the accepted (albeit unproven) stance of the pro-gay community make you intolerant? What about not wanting your children to be taught about homosexual lifestyles; intolerance personified? This springs from two sources: One, my being attacked for a different view, and two, children being "taught" tolerance, as if they were readily intolerant before.
1 response
@beamsey (425)
• Philippines
31 May 09
I agree with you that you shouldn't be called intolerant just because you wanted to know more about something. I think I have read the discussion where someone called you this. If it is the discussion about the school with and LGBT curriculum, then I have. Having studied homosexuality in Psychology and Physiology courses before, if you don't mind, I'd gladly tell you what we were taught. Scientifically, there is no proof that homosexuality is indeed something a person was born with. However, brain comparisons between straight and gay people have been studied and there are several differences in brain structure. For one, the corpus callosum - the tissue that connects the two brain hemispheres, in gay men are larger than straight men. The right hemisphere has been associated with emotion. The larger corpus callosum in gay men have been thought to be the reason behind why gay men are more in touch with their emotions than most straight men. Psychologically, homosexuality can also be an effect of childhood trauma or in Freud's psychoanalytic view, stuck in a certain stage of development. Some say it is because a child, having only one parent of the same gender is stuck in the Oedipal Stage or the Electra Complex. It could also be that a girl or a boy had a traumatizing experience with the a person of the opposite gender. It could be some other traumatizing experience that the person is not necessarily aware of. The way I see it, the kids are being taught "tolerance" not because they were readily intolerant before. You don't need to wait for your children, for example, to hate someone before you teach them how to be a loving person. I think the school just wants the kids to be more accepting of gay people, mainly not to be discriminatory. It is always better to get to kids young before they form habits that are hard to break.
1 person likes this
@beamsey (425)
• Philippines
31 May 09
I know what you mean and I understand where you're coming from. I still think it's good that these kids are able to become more aware of such things. Weight issues and such, as you have mentioned, are stuff that can go away. Sometimes, it's just a phase or a little problem you had at that age. There's medication for acne and there's always a choice to lose weight. Being homosexual on the other hand is something you feel and once you feel it, it becomes something that's hard to deny. You'll be surprised at how much kids know and how much kids can feel. Kids can do some of the most cruelest things and that's because our feelings are most pure when we're kids. I think this is because we don't think that much about other people yet. We tend to focus on ourselves. Gay people are everywhere nowadays. I'm sure these kids now what gay means and that they have seen gay people even before this curriculum was approved. I agree with you that the curriculum does assume a lot but I think it's just something to prevent or avoid anything that could be discriminatory or hurtful to other people. However, instead of having it as a formal class, the school should have offered it instead as an alternative or informal class. So at least, other parents can opt to have their children not attend the class if that's what they want.