Letters!! We Get Letters!!

One of the things i love about doing a blog and reading other blogs, is the conversation. I like differing opinions and I like hearing what people to have to say. And this happened again yesterday.

I had written about rapper T.I. and his assertion that if anyone says anything anti-gay, the the gay community and even some corporations, try to shut that person down.

Think Tracy Morgan and his anti-gay rant, when we all got mad, and demanded that NBC fire him, and the companies end their sponsorship of 30 Rock.

That I understand because Morgan was saying he doesn't like gays for religious or moral views, he was saying that if his son announced he was gay, Morgan would kill him.

Big difference between saying I don't like and/or approve of gay folks and saying if you're gay I'll kill you.

That's my point. Sometimes we're too sensitive. We all, every one of us, has the right to dislike whomever we choose, for whatever reason we choose, even if the reason is invalid or moronic.

We.Have.That.Right.

And T.I. doesn't say he doesn't like gay folks, he just says he doesn't like the way people  get 'shut down' for saying anti-gay things. Most people missed the part where TY.I. says he's in favor of gay marriage. See, he isn't anti-gay and he isn't saying anti-gay things, he's just saying people should be allowed to say it--in a non-derogatory, non-hateful manner--without fear of reprisal from the LGBT community.

I think Wonderman said it best: 

"I don't know if he understood what he was trying to say."

I agree. T.I.'s message was fair, but the way he said it seemed off.

Sean said: 

"While I agree with you that people should have the right, then I should have the right to think muslims are dangerous to the US and should be treated as less than. I should have the right to say black men are dangerous, uneducated and drug dealers because so many are. I should have the right to say and convince and raise children with lies because I have the right. Of course I don't think these thing are correct but I do associate them with yelling fire in a theater when there is none."

But see, Sean, you do have the right to that opinion about Muslims and Black men--wrong as I think they are--but you never hear the Muslim community or the Black community try to shut someone down for being anti-fill in the blank. And before anyone reminds me, yes, I remember Don Imus got fired, and others too, for saying a racial slur, but T.I. isn't talking about slurs, he's talking about an opinion that some folks don't like The Gays.

DeepBlue said:

"Right on, Sean! ;) Freedom of speech is a double-edged sword!"

And because it's double-edged that everyone has the right to voice their opinion.

Mitch Block said:

"I think I understand what I think he said but I'm not sure what he said is what he meant. I don't think I agree with him but I do think I agree with you. I'm sick of listening to these shmucks, but shmucks do have the unfortunate right to be shmucks."

That makes sense.

I guess what I was trying to say, is that there's a difference between T.I. saying that people should be entitled to, and have a right to voice, their opinions on the LGBT community. What they cannot do, is use a derogatory slur, like, oh, say, Kobe Bryant, calling someone a 'faggot' during a game, or Morgan, saying he'd kill his own son if he was gay. Or, using your opinion of gay folks, whether religious or moral, or narrow-minded, to legislate inequality toward our community.

Still, as I said at the beginning, I live for the conversation, for the dialogue, because it's when we stop talking that the real trouble starts.