A lot of the straight world are locked into stereotypes about gay people. Gay men are effeminate, weak, talk funny. Lesbians are butch, wear men’s clothes etc. When gay men and lesbians don’t conform to these stereotypes people find it hard to believe that we are gay. I would be a millionaire if I got a dollar every time a straight person said to me, “But you don’t look/act it”.

I find the whole gaydar thing silly too. Sure there may be some people who it is easy tell they are gay ecause they conform to the above stereotypes but most don’t. I do notice that gay men will hold eye contact longer than straight men and sometimes this gives me an indication as to whether someone might be gay but it would be foolish to bank on your assumptions.

I like the quote leece put in her post recently.

heterosexuality is not normal, its just more common. We are all normal.

Ok lets look at normal on human terms as a human being. Just because I have certain likes different to other people and people look down on it doesnt make me abnormal. I guess the “normal” we might be talking about here if I got the gyst of Leece’s discussions correct is based on the normal where one is outside of being judged.

Too many people judge what is different to what they perceive to be different to them or what they wouldnt do or personally like as “abnormal” and they look down upon it or snub it or trash it or throw the person into judgement and criticism.

We are all “normal” to me encompasses on a human level what I believe where Leece was coming from was that, we are all in need of love, acceptance for who we are and as humans all are either searching for basically the same thing, a purpose, a reason to live, a need to be loved and encouraged for who we are outside of what we do or appear to others to be. We all bleed the same red blood, we all hurt when we are cut, we all get hungry etc…. their is something as humans that we can all be classed in the same group as in being “normal”. No one has the right to brand anyone a freak, unless you have walked a mile in someone elses shoes, no has the right to judge anybody, what we wouldve done in someone else’s position we will never truly know and usually if not for the grace of God thank goodness we will never know. Jesus hated the judgement of others, like the boy who was blind and the people were debating which parent sinned that the boy was the way he was and they were having a field day doing it, Jesus said neither, he became an opportunity for Jesus to glorify God by healing him and he even said so. Jesus understands the whys and the background of where things come from, we do not, we can only ever assume and sometimes even in science we never really get the full picture, so what makes us think we know it all and then act on that in ways that hurt others. (I hope the gyst of what I am trying to say is coming across 8) )

Yes thats right, society and just life on planet earth dictates what is normal what is not. I guess when it comes to platforms like F2B and such and christianity, we try and by pass what the “world” or “media forms” would have us believe is normal.

Yes on a biological and basic human need level we are all the same but as you say then there is a behavioral element. I guess thats where I love the Christianity that Jesus has brought into the picture, he understood our most basic needs as humans and he came to fulfil that and show us how to fulfil that and how to try and curb the behavioural aspect thereof. ( we are yet to follow in his footsteps correctly in any aspect of church life)

The way be all behave differently as human beings is no surprise to God and he understands why it is so, but in understanding he has given us a way to deal with that aspect of ourselves. So I guess in Gods terms “normal” will probably encompass us all at his understanding of what a human is and is capable of doing and its the guidelines as I know you think also that determines what is normal behaviour and what is not and that normal behaviour ecompasses some moral codes and basic everyday law that we have in place in society.

Its just unfortunate that as humans, we dont see beneath the surface of a human being and it is not automatic for us to do so, life is so superficial and its become so and probably has been so since the word dot that we end up forgeting that beneath the outside packaging their is a human being who is deserving of all the basic things that we all need, even God agrees on that.

He sees beneath the actions of a criminal, he sees beneath the makeup of a super model etc….Its just a shame we dont and so banish and brand people and just about oust them from society. Sure their are boundaries and thats where law as in state law etc comes into it but if a citizen is not breaking the law, then why still be ousted for being different, it seems as humans we have really learnt nothing and the ball of judgement will continue as it always has. But thank God for safe places for those who get treated in such a way that they can go to, its just a shame that the church isnt one of them in many places but things are changing.

Just touching back on the topic, the media can be blamed for heightening the stereotypes in every aspect, whether that be gay or straight and as Anthony has touched on in another post, the pressure of certain communities to behave in a certain manner but its up to us whether we follow suit or not. So in a way its a mix of us conforming out of need of acceptance to a degree and media play that influences how people see us.

This is quite a massive topic actually shock and could easily be taken into a psychology lecture to discuss the ins and outs of. So what I have written is just a scrape of where any of us could take this without turning it into a book of many volumes lol

I like the quote leece put in her post recently.

heterosexuality is not normal, its just more common. We are all normal.

Or from a different perspective, we are all abnormal. We all have our different traits and characteristics that make us unique.

I’m a special ed teacher and teach kids with autism. I read a paper by a specialist a few years ago that suggests we are all autistic to a degree. It’s just that in some it’s more obvious.