Path: casaba.srv.cs.cmu.edu!rochester!udel!gatech!swrinde!howland.reston.ans.net!torn!news.unb.ca!caris!ivanov
From: Vesselin Ivanov <ivanov@caris>
Newsgroups: soc.culture.bulgaria,soc.motss
Subject: Re: Bulgarians/Homophobia
Date: Mon, 25 Mar 1996 19:45:13 -0400
Organization: University of New Brunswick
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On 18 Mar 1996, Roumyana Izvorski wrote:

> It is bad enough that in Bulgaria major newspapers can use `homosexual' as an
> insult. I was hoping though that people who have come to live in the West
> would know better. The least you should have learned is to respect other
> people's private lives. The homophobia of the Bulgarian society (and the
> sexism, and the racism...) is no excuse for your individual views/behavior.  
>    
> I find nothing offensive in Scott's homepage. If you are so bothered about
> our national honor maybe you should reconsider calling people offensive
> names just because they are gay. Thanks to the personal attacks and the
> numerous references to `perversity' in several people's postings now for
> many people the name Bulgaria will be associated with bigotry. I believe
> that I am not the only Bulgarian who thinks this way. Hopefully more people
> will speak up.
> 
> As foreigners we are often discriminated against merely for being different
> and then we rightfully complain. Homophobia is just another form of
> discrimination and like other forms of discrimination it should be opposed.
>  
> 
> Roumyana
> 
> 

Hopefully more people will speak up? Well, here is one more person 
speaking up. I must say up front, that I have not seen "Scott's homepage" and
have not followed the whole "homo" discussion. 
Here is my opinion. It is very simple. If I go to the gym and enter the 
Ladies' Room, they will throw me out (because I am male, and proudly straight).
And NOBODY has a problem with that. Now how come, that if a gay enters the
Men's Room and he gets trown out, people like Roumyana have a problem with
that? I respect the personal right of gays to be what they are, as long as
they "keep it in their pants", or stick to the Gays and Lesbians' Change 
Room, or to the gay bars or wherever thay hang arround. On my behalf I 
promise not to go there, ever.
But let's continue along that line of thought, Roumyana. What will happen
if I not only dare to enter the Ladies' Room, but also make an attempt to
approach physically a naked woman? I'll go to jail, wouldn't I. And if the
woman I approached turned out to be stronger than I am and beat me up, would
anybody call her manofob, man-hater, man-eater, etc? No. Everybody will
say "Good for her"!
Now, I have been approached by a nasty, pervert, disgusting pederast (excuse
my language) while I was naked and unexpecting in the shower in YMCA gym.
Relax, nothing happened, and the guy ran away with the speed of "bit pedersat"
although I was so embarassed I didn't even manage to hit him once.
Now, what am I supposed to do - advocate gay and lesbian rights and go 
happily to the gym with my ski suit on, or seek a compensation for an appempt
on my dignity. Or may be I should take it as a man the fact that the pervert
was trying to use me as a woman? See, Roumyana, women find it very 
appropriate to maintain feminist and women support groups and councelling
services for such cases. Well, us straught males, we are denied all that. We
have to cope on our own. Or may be we should organise a rally asking for
"Anti-gay protection legislation"?
At the end what wouldsay on the rights of pedofiles? It is not their fault -
they were "born this way". Why do we restrict them and put them in jails?
Isn't that oppression because they are (still) a minority? 
May be we should let them live near kindergardens instead? 

Please, do not get me wrong. What I am trying to say is, that people who are
unhappy about homosexuals DO HAVE a very strong point, and people who go
arround advocating homosexual rights have ridiculous claims. Most of the 
time these latter people do NOT understand the issues at all, but just go
arround repeating cool things that they heard recently.
There are limits that should not be crossed, and anybody who is not willing
to admit that is irresponsible. One of these limits is curbing your sexual
drives to the accepted norms of decency. It is as simple as that.

As a foreigner I have been discriminated against, but never on the basis of
my sexual orientation. And do you know why? Because nobody has asked me 
publicly for my sexual preferences.

Hopefully more people will speak up? Well, to date I have not heard a 
worthy PRO- argument for giving SPECIAL rights to gays. And if they don't 
want SPECIAL rights, they have EQUAL rights to begin with, don't they?


Vesselin