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We all have our personal stories that we keep hidden from public view, but sometimes there comes a point when a person realizes that they need to speak out even if it requires revealing something very personal. Tonight is my night to make a revelation.
These past few days I have been paying attention to the threads dealing with the debate over Donnie McClurkin playing at a campaign event for Barack Obama. These threads have been very disturbing for me because I see far too many people standing up and defending McClurkin for his very hateful views, and I remember my own past when I also had some hateful views.
Yes I used to be homophobic, I used to despise people simply for who they were. I have since reformed my ways and regularly speak out publicly in favor of gay rights. Gay rights is not the only issue I have changed my position on in the past, but from a personal level it was one of the most important changes I have ever made in my life.
There are only a couple people in this world who truly know where my homophobia came from originally however, but I have decided that now is the time to stop hiding my past and come out and tell how my views evolved on this issue.
You have probably already heard about how McClurkin was sexually assaulted as a child, I can identify with him on this aspect. I was also sexually assaulted by someone of the same sex when I was thirteen years old. For years afterwards I lost trust in most of society, but I was particularly harsh on gays in large part I am sure because what I had experienced in the past.
As the years went by however I started to get exposed to the gay rights movement, and I started to realize that most gays were good people who posed absolutely no threat to me, and I had no reason to blame the whole community for what happened to me.
And so I started talking about gay rights, and in doing so I was able to finally liberate myself from the hate I felt earlier and that finally allowed me to heal.
Because of my past experience I can understand why McClurkin feels the way he does. I can understand it, but I can not accept it.
McClurkin is a man that needs help, and preaching hate is not going to help him. Putting him on a stage where people will applaud his hate is only going to make his situation worse.
Obama made an enormous mistake, and many of his supporters are causing people a lot of harm by defending that mistake. This is not just about Obama and his supporters though, this is about homophobia in general because there are people supporting every candidate who would be more than willing to throw gays under the bus. Don't pretend your candidate is exempt from having supporters who would be willing to defend bigotry if it would get them a few more votes. Homophobia exists all around us, and we need to attack it wherever it rears its ugly head.
This is not about any one campaign, this is about a serious issue that harms a great number of people. Homophobia harms the person that hates, it harms the person who is hated, and it harms everyone else in society who is being ignored because people are too focused on an issue that shouldn't even be an issue.
I am extremely grateful that there were people out there who convinced me to stop hating, because if I had not stopped hating I would have never healed. The vast majority of homophobes have never went through what I went through, but they all have their reasons for hating. Maybe it is to look tough, maybe it is to put forth some false image of moral superiority, maybe it is religion, who knows what the reason is but of all the possible reasons people could give none of those reasons are legitimate. My reasoning was not legitimate either, and I glad that I finally realized that.
Now can we please stop defending McClurkin and admit that EVERY politician who embraces homophobes is wrong to do so?
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