**Starving Artist **believes that education is the key to positive change with regard to discrimination, and that anger and name-calling only make bigots dig in their heels and become even more intransigent than they were before. It can also alienate fence-sitters, who, being turned off by the rhetoric of hate in the name of tolerance, decide that lefties are no better than the ones they’re criticizing and therefore choose not to join their ranks.
I don’t think anyone here has been hateful. I think a lot of conservatives read people disagreeing with them as people marginalizing them. And I do think it’s odd that you want people to extend to you basic rights and courtesies (which they have been doing) and yet you don’t really see why Constance and others want those same basic things. Imagine how you’d feel if people weren’t politely disagreeing with you but were telling you to “Quit yer bitchin’” and going out of their way to exclude you from parties and wishing you’d just shut up. I think you’d feel a lot worse than you’re feeling right now, to be honest.
What exactly is “selfish” about a girl wanting to wear a tux to her prom? And so what if her first move was to just ask for permission for herself. Surely, if anything, that just shows how the school has forced her into making this an issue. If they’d just quietly let her in probably no one would have heard about it. Does she have to become a full time campaigner for gay rights before she can voice an opinion on something like this?
Why are “local community standards” more important than letting her wear a tux? The only possible reason to stop it is because they disapprove (or worse) of gay people. They’re more or less telling her to hide the fact that she’s gay, just so that they don’t feel uncomfortable, or not come at all. Should she have to hide her sexuality, fell ashamed of it, just to be allowed to a school dance? Remind me again why the community’s feelings are more important?
A lot of the time it is more effective to tread carefully and educate people, at least to begin with, but how long should people have to wait for things to change? After a while you’ve got to realise that people aren’t listening, and aren’t going to change on their own. Maybe in this case she could have eventually worn them down and gotten the rules changed, but I doubt it. And even then there’s no way the school would have done it in time for the prom. At least now there’s a chance that they’ll change things for future students, whereas if she hadn’t made a fuss it would have carried on quietly and unchallenged.
P.S. I’d like to complement you on how well you hid your political bias in that post. Particularly considering which party is famous around the world for it’s “rhetoric”, “anger” and “hate”. :rolleyes:
I’m sure there’s something similar in Australia, whether it’s a single document or a collection of laws, unless you think Australians have no legal rights. (I’m assuming AClockworkMelon was correct with Australia, but if not I’m fairly sure every developed country has something similar). They may not be perfect, but they’re still important, and improving with each generation.