Quote:
Originally Posted by Mwahfromtheheart
But it has worked. By every measure (polling data, voting data, hate crime incidents, number of elected officials holding office who are gay), the stigma is fading faster than any other stigma known. Intensive polling studies show that the approve / disapprove ratio has flipped in the past 7 years or so. The number of people approving same-sex marriage in these polls have made a dramatic turn around since the 90's.
Being gay may not be normal, but why does it deserve stigma?
That said, I'm kinda surprised with the results of this poll. I still don't understand the rationale that straight pride is somehow inherently homophobic.
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The level of abnormality that people will accept may have increased but that isn`t the same as accepting the abnormal as normal.
The driving force behind xenophobia is the innate human need to proactively avoid dangerous pathogens in the environment.
The appearance of having a transmittable disease may cause others to recoil in disgust, physically isolate the individual or simply avoid contact.
Certain sights and odors such as vomit, feces and rotting flesh initiate built-in avoidance behaviors.
Likewise, the knowledge that others engage in unconventional sex acts will trigger avoidance behaviors (perhaps subtle) motivated by an ancient need to avoid novel pathogens.
We seek to discern what is normal and what is not normal because our lives and our health depend on decisions made before there is time to get it wrong.
Whether or not homosexuality deserves stigma is irrelevant since what Schaller calls the behavioral immune system has already acted before the question of merit is considered.
"Avoidance is also observed at the individual level, and has been reported for HIV/AIDS sufferers [
20], for individuals with SARS [
44], and for children and adults who were infected with the H1N1 virus [
19]. A particularly striking feature of this individual-level disease-related avoidance is its sensitivity to
any perceived connection back to the disease carrier. It has also been reported that almost one-third of respondents would not wear a laundered sweater previously worn by a person living with HIV/AIDS, nor would they drink out of a washed, sterilized glass that had been used a few days earlier by such a person"
http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.o.../366/1583/3433
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