Is it fine to be homophobic?
Earlier this year Arabile Gumede tweeted “I think it’s fine to be homophobic, but to imprison someone for life because of their sexual preference is quite hefty,” and this landed him in some trouble along with his other tweet ““Imprisoning a homosexual for life is like killing a squirrel cause it stole your cashews”. Gumede was forced to publicly apologize for his statements which is too be expected after so many other people have been making forced public apologies for speaking out against the LGBTQ+ community. The question is were these statements as bad as everyone made out when this first happened?
There are two ways of looking at this situation, the side that says homophobia is wrong and there are no exceptions. The other side that says that as long as no
one gets hurt people are all entitled to their opinions and they should be valued.
“I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.” - Voltaire
This is a quote that really goes really well to show that people are entitled to an opinion and as a matter of free speech it is important we protect this right. The point stands that if we take away the right for people to speak out against us then what right do we have to speak out against them?
“I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it." - Voltaire
However when what people are saying can have a negitive effect on peoples mental health a line needs to be drawn. I fully support free speech but as with anything we need to understand that what we say and do can have a massive effect on other people and control when and where we say things to protect them. What many of these people speaking out against the LGBTQ+ community is how at risk to depression, self harm and even suicide the people inside it really are. This is why we need to make sure that people are made to
Arabile Gumede
Picture via Twitter
understand and apologize for their harmful words and statements. This is about much more than a policital point of view, this is about protecting the vulnerable. The end of line being that free speech is great and we should fight to protect it but not at the expense of peoples health.
"free speech is great and we should fight to protect it but not at the expense of peoples health."