Is Elisa Chan Not Entitled to Her Own Opinion?
Now that the initial backlash has passed, let’s objectively chat about Elisa Chan and her anti-gay statements. Let me start this off by stating that Elisa Chan identifies with the Republican party. Why is that relevant? In a nutshell what this means is that she doesn’t expect to receive any support from Democratic voters. Okay, now we have established that.
As we listen in on the now infamous audio recordings we can hear that they are discussing how to appeal to her Conservative voter base. It is obviously clear that they were trying to determine how to lock in those supporters while at the same time not heavily offending non-supporters or potential would be supporters. Let us be clear on one thing though, at least for the foreseeable future it is safe to say that Democrats will not vote for a Republican candidate. You can rest assured that conservatives know this as well.
You’ll notice that I do say the “foreseeable future” and there is a reason for that. A brief look through history or a quick online search will demonstrate that some of these so called “Republican” organizations actually supported and protected what have since then become Democratic voters. Do some research on the NRA and you will see exactly what I am talking about.
These days, though, no matter what a member of the GOP says, they are probably not getting a Democratic voter to switch sides. Even moderate Conservatives like Libertarian Rand Paul are met with heavy resistance regardless of what they say or do. Make no mistake, these discussions were geared towards getting Conservative votes. Although, one never knows how the political climate will change in the future.
Whether or not we want to accept it, there are still many people out there that feel being gay is wrong. Some people feel that way because of religious beliefs. Others feel that way because of nature, they feel “it’s just not natural”. A point that is often made by anti-gay folks I debate with is the following: “A man and a man, or a woman and a woman cannot have children.” Because it is not physically possible for gays to reproduce, these folks feel that their lifestyle is not natural. Other people were simply brought up to hate those that are different, they don’t limit their hatred to gays, it carries over to other cultures, colors, neighborhoods and on and on it goes.
As I researched this topic for references, I found plenty of data. Most recently I read about a gay couple that was attacked in Chelsea. As a side note, Chelsea happens to be one of the most gay friendly neighborhoods in NYC. As I read the stories on the different sites, some of the hateful comments I came across from the anti-gay population were absolutely shocking. I believe that we all have the right to express ourselves, but when you applaud violence and you actually take pleasure in seeing people get hurt, then you, my friend, are not being a very good human being. I couldn’t believe some of the things that I read. I don’t care to repeat them, but if you read the comments on the aforementioned link, you’ll see these comments for yourselves.
Whatever the case may be, these people have as much of a right to not approve of gays, as gays have the right to not approve of their ways. But violence is where I draw the line. Although violence over all in the city is going down, violence against the LGBT community seems to be on the rise. As of March 2013 there were a reported 29 attacks against gays, up from 14 during the same time the year before. One of those terrible attacks was the cold blooded murder of Mark Carson, a 32 year old gay man that was murdered simply for being gay. How anyone can justify these actions is just beyond me.
Personally, I have no quarrel with gay people, never have. I have gay and bisexual friends, and these folks are intelligent, kind, caring individuals. They are cool people just like their straight counterparts. The only difference between us is that they happen to be attracted to the same sex while I’m attracted to the opposite sex.
To think that someone could kill one of my friends just because of their sexual preference is appalling. How does their sexual preference hurt anyone? It doesn’t hurt anyone at all, so why would another person have such a problem with their life choices that they would feel a need to murder them? I don’t understand why some people hate gays to that degree.
