If you don’t believe in gay relationship don’t get in

Mumbai, June 03: Celina Jaitley is busy thanking all the people who have supported her cause of bringing gays and lesbian relationships out of the closets. In her recent blog she goes gaga over her fans and their gracious remarks for her efforts.

Here are the excerpts from her post:

Wow! Pages and pages of response… and what a response! Firstly, I would like to say thank-you to all those who support this human rights issue. But what is really interesting to me is:

A) The humongous amount of hatred towards the gay community; and,
B) The humongous amount of antagonism towards ME for showing my support towards the gay community.

Well… to begin with it really amuses me to see that people who do not believe in sexual minorities actually have the time to spend hours hurling distasteful comments at the people who support them. I cannot fathom where it comes from.

Someone I know (who is not into gay rights but is a very influential person) once said something which ought to teach homophobic people a thing. “If you don’t believe in gay relationships don’t get into one. As simple as that… Where is the hatred coming from?”

Believe me, ladies and gentlemen, it’s not much to do with what is happening in the bedrooms of people… because if it was that, 80% of straight people/couples would be persecuted. It’s not about gay rights… it’s about basic human rights, about acceptance, about tolerance, about everything a human being (irrespective of their sex, caste, creed or colour) expects from parents, friends, society and most of all the LAW which is our protector.

I really liked one of the comments on my blog, by Shelly Sapra. She says, “If you derive happiness from the company of someone you love, then why deprive somebody else the same kind of happiness… you have no right to make a judgement or discriminate against anyone… Grow up!”

So true… When will we grow up? This hate is exactly the reason I stand my stance as a gay rights activist… if people’s reaction towards a supporter and activist is so, I can imagine what it will be towards a person belonging to a sexual minority.

An individual named Caged Keanu happens to be topping the list of homophobic commentators/abusers on this blog. I have only one thing to say to him: Your hatred is nothing… it’s just the absence of love. A man/woman who is filled with love sees love on all sides and attracts the love of others.

The man with hate in his heart gets all the hate he can stand. Your antagonism towards the supporters of a sexual minority is nothing but a reflection of the disharmony within your mind.

A comment on my blog by Kevin Arnie from US really is wonderful and it’s comforting to see that for every non-supporter there are 10 supporters who are wonderful human beings.

For all those who oppose gay rights or gay unions how does the union or giving rights to a gay couple diminish your own? How exactly does it tear at the moral fibre of your diverse community? Doesn’t being gay and straight, Hindu and Muslim, Southern and Northerner make you diverse in the first place?

For those who say animals know the right thing and not to mate with same sex, read a little further and you will find examples of gay behaviour in the animal kingdom too, but more than that isn’t the ability to choose for ourselves and make decisions make us the ones that are more evolved?

For those who quote the scriptures I have just these words, “Love one another as I have loved you”, I know just the parable of Christ dining with all kinds of people, and healing them not based on their orientation.

Denying gay rights and calling it unnatural isn’t making this go away. For a society to be truly progressive, we need to embrace everyone as ONE, not delineate based on sex, caste, religion or orientation. That’s the first step.

I also received a lot of emails which asked, ‘Will your movement make a difference?’ I have come up the hard way in life but have had unwavering faith in my principles and always trusted my instincts. I support this cause.

As a responsible citizen of one of the biggest democracies of the world, I deeply abhor the kind of treatment given to equally responsible citizens and am sanguine that they are bona fide voters who have done their bit in formulating the carrier of our ruling elite. I hope that the government, while formulating the new policy, should give it a sympathetic thought.

Also, yes, I agree there are many causes which may seem more important than this, but till when should one wait? Till all other problems of the world get solved?

As one commentator Joseph A said very correctly, “It’s a bit unfair to suggest that any group should overlook what hurts it directly first for other problems — just as one would not ask battered housewives to forgo their fight and take up the cause of orphans. People are harassed for their orientation on a daily basis, but you would not know it unless you were the victim or a close friend/relative of one.

This is an attempt to find a voice that the community had never had. And I think a disparity that can easily be addressed by amending the IPC should not have to be a long drawn struggle, unlike more comprehensive measures required to eradicate poverty and homelessness.”

Every cause of inequality causes a big hole in the foundation of society, every cause is related to another and no one is implying that gay rights should come about at the cost of any others… but while patients in the ICU are being treated, should the treatment of patients in other wards be stopped?

Homosexuality is nothing new, it’s just different from the so-called perfect model of self-built society.

Open your eyes, look beyond hatred, nobody is trying to enforce their sexuality or way of life on you they are instead asking you to respect and love them just the way they are.

-Agencies