@Deeepensiverse 22 May 2022 more from that month

Is Indifference To The LGBTQ Community Being Homophobic?

Lead image by me. I'm aware that people have different sexualities, and the world has accepted homosexuality. With the awareness these days, I'm pretty sure even a child knows what being gay or lesbian is. I couldn't publish an article yesterday because I was in an argument with some people. I'm in this book club and we pick a book every month to read and review at the end of the month. This month's book is Ace of spades by Faridah Arike Iyimide. I haven't read it even though the review is next week because I'm a very fast reader and reading it early makes me forget some points when it's time for the review. I plan to read it on Friday. Someone on the group chat mentioned that some of the characters were gay and it felt forced and unnecessary and that it was probably a marketing strategy by the author to sell more especially to the LGBTQ community and all hell broke loose. Another person called those who felt uncomfortable due to the homosexual content homophobic, and that it is our duty to learn what LGBTQ was about and accept it. I was like what? In a country where homosexuality is illegal? She started comparing being homophobic to racism and sexism. It was all messy. Different people had different analogies about this. The first analogy Someone said Homophobia is a type of fear just like being claustrophobic, is claustrophobia a problem? He also said people don't choose what they're afraid of just like how homophobic people don't choose their sexuality. He said and I quote 'having phobias for different things is an innate nature of man. The fact the object of my phobia is gay people doesn't make me a bad person. It's similar to having a phobia for large bodies of water. You don't because of that try to fill up every large body of water you come across.' The second analogy Swimming was used to substitute homosexuality in this context. If you have a phobia of water, and you have a friend that loves swimming, you won't because of that friendship go swimming with that friend no? The other party supporting LGBTQ then retorted No, you won't go swimming, you do not have to go swimming You should just understand that your friend likes swimming and not insult it or stop them from swimming I then replied, Exactly, the friend should also not convince me that swimming is right or wrong and make me accept it. Accepting or understanding LGBTQ should be a choice and not shoved down our throats. These days, you're a bad person if you are homophobic or you don't just care. Which by the way, isn't legal My point **Homosexuality isn't legal in my country**, Nigeria. If caught, it's fourteen years in prison. The person kept stressing the fact that indifference is a bad thing and that it leads to homophobia which I don't agree with. I kept telling her that I don't actually care about it, we are all entitled to do what we want, **it's a free world**. You have the free will to choose whether you're straight, gay, or non-binary and other people have the free will to be indifferent. **What is wrong is when people are now actively against homophobia by calling them derogatory names, killing them, and doing all sorts of inhumane things to them.** The world has accepted homosexuality and that should matter. **What I have a problem with is trying to make everyone welcome, accept, and love LGBTQ. They just have to accept that not everyone is going to love them.** For example, I'm a Christian, and in my religion, it is greatly frowned upon. I know people that are homophobic because of what the Bible says about it but then I chose not to be homophobic, I instead don't care and believe people can do what they want in terms of sexuality. The whole argument ended messily as the avid supporters of LGBTQ started calling us names for being indifferent, I was pissed. No one is saying to change your sexual orientation, our point was that we don't understand how it feels to be lesbian or gay and that's okay, we have our free will and can do what we want and we chose to be indifferent but they insisted that it wasn't okay. **Is being indifferent wrong? I mean, I don't hate the people of the community, I see you as humans like me rather than defining you by your sexuality and that's still not okay? I don't understand.** It felt to me like they want everyone to join the community. **If you understand better, feel free to explain in the comment section. I'm open to corrections**. ***My sponsors y'all, they're the best***. Thank you for reading🤗 May 22, 2022. ©Deeepensiverse.