@ silvio:

Could it be that people who are overly concerned about other people’s sexuality actually have shortcomings in that department themselves?

But macho men definitely don’t accept gay men and to them, gays are not complete men and many times are the object of ridicule.

Alison, you’re writing about your own experience with your friends (I don’t use ‘gay’ because I don’t care if they are straight or actually). I agree with you that they do not show their emotions (like kissing or holding hands) in public, unless they feel safe with those around them.

I don’t agree with D when she wrote that “despite men being far more in evidence than women, two-thirds of all incidents have involved women and just one-third have involved men.” Can you imagine a man reporting he was either beaten or harassed to the police? If, one the other hand a woman filed a report to the police, she may find they are more sympathetic.

I watched a lady and a man (both s) on Sellili the other week and I agreed with the man when he said that it’s nobody’s business what happens in your neighbor’s bedroom. And it’s exactly THIS the point here. These things are best done in private, by both heterosexuals and s. I feel disgusted when I have to watch two french kissing and touching on the bus. I usually get up and find another place and leave them to it especially if I’m with my daughter. As I said these things are best done in private; I don’t care what X, Y, or Z does in private, it’s their life, but please do spare us from watching you on a bus.

@david ll

Could the fact that you eat people like me for breakfast is what is causing all your problems?

You did not heed my last suggestion, but I ask you to consider this one.

Try cereals for breakfast, and be sure to add some sugar, as it is considered as food for the brain.

I am happy for you that, as you say, you have it all – perhaps not really all, but as long as you have learned to live with your shortcomings, you might, as you say, look forward to a good future, one way or another.

@Silvio

It’s funny you should use the word ‘phobia’ in your argument, as mine is nothing like fear. I actually eat people like you for breakfast.

I am one of those you think deserve your pity. Well, if I were a timesofmalta.com commentator, I would tell you very graphically what to do with your pity, but since I’d like to spare the readers of this blog from vulgarity, I’ll just tell you that you can keep it as I certainly need none of it.

My sexuality has never come in the way of me having a great life, a healthy relationship, good career prospects, good salary, good education, fantastic family and friends (yes, even heterosexual ones, I don’t live in a ghetto) and lots of beautiful things to look forward to in my future. But guess what, I would have had none of the above if I gave any importance to the pathetic judgements of people like you, who have this condescending feeling that gay people are children of a lesser God. The only gay people who deserve pity are those who treat the opinion of people like you with importance, rather than the strip of bog roll it deserves to be treated as, and hence this inhibits them from living a life of fulfilment.

As for the doing your best to meet me bit, it’s really not necessary. I’d rather dedicate my time to positive people, than people like you riddled with prejudices and judgements which, quite frankly, I’m not interested in.

Hence, I rest my case.

@David II

You say that you treat people not to your liking with ” the disdain they deserve”. This is very different from the way I treat mine.

I treat them the way “they deserve” – mostly pity, considering they need help, and at the same time with Christian charity, knowing that it is not their fault for being born with such a perversion.

You say that it would be best for me to “avoid you”.

On the contrary, I will do my best to meet you, as I feel I should try, again to help you out of your phobia.

It is the least I can do for anyone, before matters turn for the worse, then it will be too late.

Thanks for your suggestion, but no thank you. I decide to keep those kind of people at bay to safeguard my sanity.

In the same way you treat homosexuals the way you think they deserve, I too treat people falling under aforementioned description with the utmost disdain they deserve, when I come across one of them because I can’t do otherwise.

So, should we ever cross paths, it would be best for you to avoid me.

In the sexual arena, this is unfortunate.

Taking gay men as an example, they react to the extreme with non-stop promiscuity (they may be gay but they behave exactly like straight men and we know what they are like.

What is looked down upon in the heterosexual world is thus celebrated in the homosexual one. So, promiscuous behaviour, whether overt or in private, is like giving the finger to an oppressive society.

And with no models to emulate, the homosexual feels free to behave as he pleases. And this to a two-pronged oppression, ie Church and Society(people may not be particularly religious but the Church’s overt disapproval of homosexuality is not lost on them because it suits the situation. Bigotry/hypocrisy at its worst).

This connects, however vaguely to, ‘cutting your nose to spite your face’. If homosexuality were more readily accepted as a non-issue (which it goddamn well should be), there would be less reason for homosexuals to react and over-react by by behaviour seemingly provocative when it is nothing of the sort. Some are paying with their lives and an unhealthy emotional state.

The bigots could not give a monkey’s. But then we do not live in a healthy society, exactly!. And that impacts on all of us, whatever/whoever we are. As the graffiti on the school-wall read, all those decades ago, gay oppression is class oppression.

And that affects me, thee and everybody else.

It’s good to know that I am not the only one suffering from one kind of phobia or another.

May I suggest a good way of overcoming yours. You have first to look very closely at one of the stupid etc.. who you do not like, and you would be surprised how much alike you look.

As for Sap, yes I met many homosexuals etc in my time, and I can assure I always treated them the way they deserved.