94- Special edition 3 - LGBTQ+ (6) - Tribute to Orlando shooting victims

Words have failed me this past week. I struggled to compose posts for my various blogs and the difficulty of expressing my sadness of a new monumental loss of life. The loss which is the result of a fundamental hatred. I'm talking of homophobia.




Indeed, this weekend a hundred people have been directly affected by bullets fired and projected by a crazy homophobic psychopath. I'm obviously talking about the mass shooting in Orlando's Pulse Nightclub.

Many media have omitted that Pulse is a gay nightclub ... This word scares so many people. Despite the small societal progress in France, the USA and elsewhere, there are still too many prejudices which are no different from racism, sexism or any other form of discrimination.

Homophobia has a name that is misleading: it seems to speak of a disease, a phobia from which we suffer and on which we have no control.

But homophobia is an intellectual choice to hate people for their sexual orientation.
This hatred is the result of cultures and religions that have perpetuated the idea that being gay was a sin in the eyes of god, and an aberration of nature - we can not procreate '' normally '' by being gay. Certainly, this biological aspect is real, and not to enter into another very hot topic - the absolute CHOICE that anyone should have to decide whether or not he or she wants to be a parent (in a normative society's rules that people are not accomplished without offspring - a sacrosaint religious duty), I will stay in the current topic:

Homophobia is learned, taught and instilled in people's heads, either as a child to homophobic parents, or by following a social hatred towards the differences of men and women who do not sleep with the opposite sex.

But what threat do some people feel when two men tenderly hold hands or kiss? What threat is it when men have sex wit other men, and women with other women?? 

Regarding lesbians, they are seen as women who reject advances from men with disdain and are hated for it. 
Or lesbians are seen as women who are there only to fire sexual desire in men who watch them - eg lesbian porn for men who find it so exciting they imagine themselves in an orgy with them.

In any case, the homosexuals, both gays and lesbians are prejudiced, are misunderstood and rejected by the society to which they belong.

Very often the first contact with these people through the idea that they are '' homo '' before being people. They aren't women or men just as heterosexuals. They are ''gay'', firstly. 

Between straight we say, hello mr, hello mrs , but with homosexuals the first thing is to call them homosexuals, after their sexual orientation...

Nobody says '' ah hello straight person '', as it is assumed that the other person is straight. It is a question of normality, or desire that everyone around is ''normal'' = straight.

A man wants to flirt with a woman and sleep with her, and assume she's straight, ''super yay, I have my chance with her''. 

Men prefer to hit hard on the back, strong handshake and show their masculinity and physical strength in an affirmation of the Alpha. Kissing? hug? ''Oh no! we will not risk our (ahem our private parts) to touch one another... absolutely not! we cannot feel desire for a man ... I'm not gay. ME I'm a MAN, a REAL, I like women.''

So ''I tap strong, from afar. I do not wish become gay, oh no, I have to prevent it at all costs. ''

So, yes, homophobia is a choice.

I'll remind you that in my own journey, I was raised by a homophobic father. Actually, he was downright sexophobe  as the act had to be that to procreate children who believed in god and therefore in himself because it he god incarnate on earth. (See elsewhere in my blog).

But despite this, I made a conscious CHOICE: I did not understand (for a very long time) homosexuality (and did not know anything about LGBTQ+ ). My choice was to accept the people themselves, even if I did not accept their sexuality.

A friend opened my eyes to all that, and since then, I have not only learned to accept the people and their sexuality which isn't any more a choice than being straight, but I also came to embrace the LGBTQ+ cause. 

I am heterosexual, but not cisgender: I'm non-binary.

The man who shot in the LGBT nightclub called Pulse in Orlando, California was homophobic. He did it in hatred, an unforgivable choice.

He killed fifty people and as many were hospitalized with injuries.

He had a succession of choices: buying weapons, go there and pull the trigger. Not once, but 100 or more, to explain this real human carnage.

I call it a barbaric act, a despicable act of terrorism. The man whose parents said he was not raised like that, was radicalized and sold in to the deadliest group in recent years. Everyone knows their name. I will not give them satisfaction by naming them.

I make a deep and sad tribute to the victims and to their friends, as well as their families. These people were killed out of hatred. Do not forget, they are human like you and me.

Remember them with love.

With respect and dignity.

I chose the city of Orlando's website for the names of these people, because this is the first I found without  shocking images from other news.