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RE: How Homophobic Am I??? - An Original Steemit Infographic to Find Out!
I've always been curious about all this "ally" thing.
Is there a war going on? What are the allies really?
I usually see the term "ally" as separating different groups of people, like LGBT+ from "normal people".
I see as LGBT+ as people. So are people basically allying with people?
Hi @aspu, I’m glad you commented! This is a great question - what is an ally? Is there a war?
I think a good place to start is with your statement, “I see LGBT+ as people.” That’s so important, and definitely characterizes a strong acceptance or LEVEL 4 attitude.
There is no “war”, however as much as we recognize that LGBT+ people are just people, we are different. That difference doesn’t make us exceptional or special, but we are a minority population and it’s important to celebrate those differences.
Additionally, as many of us LGBT+ members have admitted here, we do not view all LGBT+ people and relationships in the same way. I find people tend to “accept” lesbians more than gays. Just my observation, but again, while we are “normal people,” we are not all equally accepted as normal.
So an ally is someone that is intentional in their effort to make sure that people are moving in a positive direction in their acceptance of ALL LGBT people.
Allies are people at Level 8, trying to get Level 1-2 folk to at the very least move to Level 4. Allies don’t allow their friends to be “okay with lesbians but not gay people” without addressing them. They don’t allow their friends to misgender others. They openly defend LGBT people against the bigotry of others.
If you are doing that, then you are an ally @apsu! I find most people are at Level 4, and accept LGBT people themselves. But are you actively inviting others to do the same?
Thanks for the good reply, it gave me some points to think about in more and less serious sense.
Just as now I got the idea of having "levels", as with the gamer generation everyone wants to reach higher levels, so I assume people would be delighted to reach out for higher levels.
However on the other hand, as I commented to the miss above, we are from different cultures and the general reactions for LGBT+ might be very different. We have gay marriages legalized with strong support from the people, in last two presidential elections the second most popular candidate was a gay man and I've felt the general attitude has been good - but however, I cannot assume this is something which could happen everywhere. I'm seeing things how they are here and might not understand that it might not yet be as good everywhere.
I'm hoping we can see where we can have complete acceptance of all LGBT+ people all over the world. Especially as it is not yet perfect everywhere.
We need lvl 9 you are a proud gay... lol then it makes sense with what u are sayong. But tbh even some put gays might have trouble being an 8 cuz they are afraid to speak out
Well to be completely serious, some gay people might be on really bad levels on homophobia scale, as some react very poorly to what they are and might even be repulsed and aggressive against homosexuality.
It's a real shame.
Theres that.. which i habe had... but also there are people who are gay but just really shy and conflict averse... so when it comes to advocating for themselves or others it might not be done... happens in communities for womens empowerment a lot
That is Finland?
Yes, this is Finland.
I'd say a minority of people have anything against homosexuality, trans people might meet more opposition. We had a vicar who was trans, but she resigned from her position as some members had left the parish and continued as an author.
The good in this that she was allowed to work as the vicar even while being trans, but some were opposing it, but I could assume religious people are more old fashioned.
As mentioned, in the last two presidential elections we had an openly gay candidate from Green party who is in a relationship with a foreign man.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pekka_Haavisto
First time, in 2012, he got 37,4% of votes in the final election.
The second attempt, 2018, he got only 12,4% of votes but this was mainly due to the popularity of the current president, Pekka Haavisto was still the second most popular candidate.
The "gay marriage" was allowed in 2017, before this we could have "registered relationships" for gays and lesbians, but finally the law was changed to allow equal rights for marriage for all - including the right for adoption.
Finns are somewhat used to homosexuality, as some of the Finnish music favorites are openly gay and it has not diminished their popularity in the grand public (even with favorites in ages of 40-65).
The largest issue currently seen with the law is that to be allowed for the legal change of gender, you need to be sterilized. There are political movements demanding this requirement to be removed OR even removing the "legal gender", that the state and legal documents would never have to contain the gender.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Finland
In general I think at LGBT+ are well accepted, even though more work is required, but most issues are constantly under work.
That is pretty cool to hear. I have to say it is not the situation in the US. There is actually still a surprising amount of the "homosexuality is a sin against God and a moral failing that needs to be corrected" attitude here, and the presence of large groups of people holding that belief kind of shifts the whole scale down. I mean, that belief is often held right up into the upper levels of state and federal government here, in private if not always in public.
That's a real shame and sad. I'm hoping more people will instead find love and caring towards LGBT+ instead of claiming it is evil and wicked.
Government should work for the good of all and not to support pointless hate.
I wish all good for the entire US with better attitude towards other human beings.
To your point on differing cultures — absolutely our different contexts will inform what discrimination looks like in action.
For instance, in the USA where I am from, an action that demonstrates level one might be a shop owner refusing to bake a cake for a gay wedding. That is one of the strongest ways that you can show your intolerance to LGBT people in America - refusing service.
However, in other countries of the world, Level 1 may be demonstrated by holding to the death penalty for LGBT people.
Thus, I believe that this scale is applicable to any country and any context, but this will absolutely socially play out differently everywhere.
Somehow I had missed this, but you are right that same level of homophobia can be visible in very different ways in different cultures. Both can feel just as bad and react in different ways.
wow this is a terrific comment - great job of presenting a case in level fashion with absolutely no hint of personal attack or defensiveness. Not easy to do!
It's a fair question. Far too often queer folks are indeed under attack--be it blatant or more subversive. I think the term 'ally' comes from the notion of support in communal defense against those attacks. I'd love for you to be my ally in defending my [fill in the blank: mere existence, body from violence or rape, marriage, preferred use of pronouns, ability to work without legally being fired, etc. etc. etc.]. I don't love the us v. them dichotomy either, but sometimes I personally think we need more than level 5 support--we need allies. Love the question!
Thanks for the reply. Now that I think of it, it might be very different situation in different cultures, as we are luckily in a quite good position with LGBT+ rights and attitude, even though expectations exist.
Hopefully we all will see a point where there are no attacks towards others like this.