People think in boxes and have prejudices. As a gay person it’s not always easy, but in fact everyone in his / her life has to deal with prejudice, intolerance or discrimination. How can we become more tolerant? Where do we start?
A boy with whom I became good friends a short time ago gave me inspiration for this blog. I would like to explain why:
The story
This friend of mine is a handsome boy and he is popular on social media. He has many followers and people like him. He is also regularly asked, via social media, whether he is gay or not. Some people ask this in a respectful way, but there are others who immediately send an intimate photo or demand an intimate photo off him. As LGBTQ we want to be more accepted in society, only if we want to be accepted, is it not up to us to set a good example and also respect heterosexuals?
Where lies the border?
Limits vary per person. I personally am fairly open and when someone asks me a personal question via social media I answer that nicely. Often a pleasant conversation blooms, nothing wrong with it to me. For everyone it is different where his or her limits are, this is very normal.
My personal limit is relatively far when it comes to sexuality, but it is important to feel how far you can go in your conversations with the other person. I find it quite disrespectful and rude when people send or force intimate photos out of ‘nowhere’.
“If you want to make the world a better place,
Take a look at yourself, and then make a change ”
Tolerance, it starts with ourselves
As LGBTQ we are very lucky in the Netherlands, we can and may express ourselves freely without being punished for this by the government, we have even received all the rights that straight couples have received. For this we had to fight long and hard and we justly won!
Only in social acceptance is there still a major lack. But does it not start with ourselves? Do some people provoke negative reactions consciously or unconsciously? I think so. It is not nice to ask intimate photos from a stranger via social media or to send them unwanted, this is even punishable. Apart from the fact that this is punishable, things like this impede the acceptance of other people for whom we have been fighting for so long. Treat another person the way you want to be treated. Do you not know someone well or not? Ask the other person what he / she likes, what he / she does tell or share.
