But I really have to wonder at the Mormon mom who asked “Why do they have to take it so personally?” Was this before or after her 30 days with the gay family? (I didn’t watch the clip, sorry). In my own idealistic naive way, I think a bit of exposure to those who are different from us can be transformative. Maybe in her case it was not.

It was several times during her 30 days, including at least once towards the very end. I think spending time with them and others had begun to soften, if not change, her opinions, but then toward the very end she met the biological family of one of the children. Whereas everyone else she’d met in her 30 days was very polite when voicing their disagreement with her, this family was a bit more hostile, and I think that allowed her to feel like a victim and hide behind that instead of facing what the rest of her experience had taught her.

Anyway, I think programs like this are a wonderful way of starting a dialogue. But I really have to wonder at the Mormon mom who asked “Why do they have to take it so personally?” Was this before or after her 30 days with the gay family? (I didn’t watch the clip, sorry). In my own idealistic naive way, I think a bit of exposure to those who are different from us can be transformative. Maybe in her case it was not. I do know that there are a lot of conservatives, Evangelicals, Mormons, etc. who have gay family members and therefore do not hold the same anti-gay beliefs as others. I don’t know if you ever watch Current TV but just this week I saw a “pod” about a young gay man coming out to his Mormon parents–and the dad was a Bishop in the church. They were as loving and accepting of their gay son as anyone could hope to be.

Anyway, this country has a long and shameful history of bigotry against all sorts of citizens, not just African Americans. In the early 1950s anti-Semitism was codified in all sorts of places: no Jews allowed in certain hotels, jobs, etc. This was years after the Holocaust when you’d think attitudes would have been softened. In Northern California the Chinese were treated horribly, denied basic rights like earning a living as shrimpers and fishermen, told where to live, etc.

But justice comes around eventually to everyone. I have no doubt that GLBT folks will get theirs in time. Some day we’ll look back on all this hooha about marriage and adoption and wonder how we could have been so stupid.

Anyway, I think that people who oppose gay people having the same rights as straight people have conditioned themselves to see gays as less than human. They will deny it, but if you look historically at any one segment who contends that another isn’t privy to the same rights, (the South with the Slaves, the Nazis with the Jews, the American settlers with the Native Americans, even Men with Women until the Suffrage movement’s success), the common thread seems to be a lack of ability to empathize with the other.

I just completed an American Government class and I had to research and deliver a presentation on gay rights. In my research, I found shameful discrimination based solely on sexual orientation. The most memorable case was a father who had spent 8 years in prison for murdering his first wife being awarded custody of his child based on the single fact that the child’s mother was a lesbian.

The bottom line is that we are all just people. We have different cultures, different religions, different lifestyles, different languages, different appearances, but we are all just people.

Probably being trapped with Mac users…

…or American Idol fans.