Thursday, November 3, 2011

The Societal Imperative for LGBT Rights

When people talk about LGBT rights around the world they have a tendency to frame the debate in emotional, moral, or religious terms. However, think of society as a large multi-functioning organism where each of us is an individual cell.

If 5% percent of the population is not allowed to function as a fully accepted part of society its just bad for the system as a whole. Anti-gay violence and homophobic rhetoric is keeping intelligent, productive members of society from functioning at full capacity and contributing to the progress of the human species for no reason other than personal prejudice. Anti-gay bullying in schools is causing low grades and high rates of depression among intelligent young people. And in many extreme cases, LGBT young people are kicked out of their houses for coming out to their parents.

Homophobia is like a cancer on our society in the most literal sense of the word. It marginalizes people who are fully capable of becoming smart, productive members of our society. It also dismisses the multifaceted nature of every human being and discounts variety of the human experience across every spectrum. There are homosexual people in our society, and it is a phenomena that is not going to disappear. Homosexuals are simply another genetic variety of the human species; one that is fully capable of adapting, surviving, producing, and reproducing. If homophobia is allowed to rage unfettered in human society we will lose a large pool of brilliant, capable people from which to draw.

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