Why some cultures really abominate gays

lopo2000

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This is only my opinion and something that I've thought about in these past few days. After watching Beautiful Thing, I realized that gay movement has advanced even in the 90's in the UK. But my country is still outdated when it comes to this. Given my culture (and some other cultures in other countries too) views premarital sex as a sin, of course other things that are deemed to be promiscuous is also viewed as sinful. This includes homosexuality.

Why? I believe it's due to the fact that people from my culture can't imagine homosexuality as more than sex between two men. They fail to understand that homosexuality is also about love and relationship. In contrast, people from my country think that homosexuality is something promiscuous which can degrade a civilization because of the open and free sexual practice among the gay people. They fail to understand that like heterosexuality, homosexuality is also a diverse community. We have those who are addicted to sex, those who are shy, who are virgins, who are monogamous, who don't believe in monogamy, etc.

I really don't want to blame anyone because it's a culture and cultures don't change overnight, but I think the way my culture views homosexuality might be contributed by how the media portray homosexuality. Many films about gays view free sexual practice and show the life of promiscuous men and orgy and threesome and men obsessing about which man to be on bed that night (I don't judge these practices, but my culture certainly doesn't like them). Which is why I applaud gay films that try their best to show the life of gay people who live their lives just like how straight people do. Films like Beautiful Thing, Weekend, Eyes Wide Open, The Broken Hearts Club, and many others should be made because they are about normal gay people living a normal life, like me. Because now, whenever I mention the word "homosexuality", people would think "gay sex". It's sad.

So, yeah...
 
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Apparently, in Malaysia - gay characters are only allowed in films or tv if they repent or get killed towards the end. :(
 

D_BenJo_Ahanakokolele

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Developed countries are more accepting towards gays, abortions, medicine, science, education, equal rights... etc.

When you educate a group of people, they in turn become enlightened.

The key to global peace and harmony is education.
 

lopo2000

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That's right education. Although it's challenging that Malaysia still treats LGBT issues as taboo so the education on it is also considered a taboo. The only source of portrayal of LGBT in Malaysia is through the media, which can be unfair sometimes given how Malaysians can be easily brainwashed by how the gays and lesbians are portrayed in there.
 

yhtang

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My believe is that in Malaysia, where politics and religion are closely linked, those who wield religious power do not wish to accept alternative lifestyles. The acceptance of alternative lifestyles mean, to them, a weakening of their hold over the religion - and thus a weakening of their power.

As with many religions, the number of supporters/believers is directly correlated to the religious entity's income. The fear of the bringing of fire and brimstone into this life, and the languishing in the same fire and brimstone (or worse) in the afterlife holds the believers in that religion and secures that religion's income.

In the case of same gender relationships, the possibility of offsprings is small, hence the acceptance of such a lifestyle would also potentially reduce the number of believers - and in time, this reduction in the number of believers will threaten the income of the religious body. Hence such a relationship would be frowned upon.

I believe that, financial reasons aside, the power angle of religious bodies has an influence on the non-acceptance of alternate lifestyles. If religion and power in a country is closely connected, any politician who accepts alternate lifestyles may be seen as being non-religious. By extrapolation, such a politician may be seen to be of lose morals, or worse, corruptible/corrupted and thus not trustworthy. Having such an ill shadow cast over a politician will certainly tarnish a politician. I doubt a politician in Malaysia would dare speak out for alternative lifestyles.
 

AquaEyes11010

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The dominant influence of a culture's perception of LGBT people is based upon ideas from one of the Abrahamic religions. Cultures which are either lacking this influence or are distancing themselves from religious fundamentalism are more open-minded. The widespread anti-LBGT sentiment strongly overlaps the spread of these Abrahamic religions.
 

cruztbone

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well, Lopo 2000, take heart, as the UK is making progress and life for the GLBT community is better now than when you were born. same is true for Califonria. the US has a long way to go, but California is moving rapidly toward full equality. my partner and i are out completely, and i nearly never experience any nasty reaction or hateful remarks or reactions from anyone. take heart, have faith, and get politically aware and active in your community. i did, years ago. it paid off.
 

blackbottom2

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In a lot of the cultures spoken of as being gay intolerant actually historically there is a lot of acceptance of homosexuality for example the islamic sufi saint Rumi born 1207 india Rumi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. He was very much in love with shams u Tabriz. His poetry, writings and Islamic theology is widely accepted as being some of the best ever created. It often depicts his love for the man shams.

"In the 16th-century indian Punjab, there lived a Sufi \ saint and poet called Shah Hussain who is greatly venerated. He fell in love with a Hindu boy. They lived together and are buried side by side in the same tomb. Pilgrims come to the tomb and shrine in Lahore district even today, annualy there is a large celebration of his life whereupon thousands attend the procession but some some extremist people want to rewrite history, saying the boy was in fact a girl. Should we be giving these people credence.

More than 800 years later many many historically important and homosexual people from these so called intolerant cultures are still widely accepted as the norm. This is at odds with the belief that homosexuality is not tolerated. There still some extreme laws in place against homosexuality but in reality not many persecutions currently take place.

I feel it's more of a clash of cultures with the intolerant minority on both sides being given more of a platform to spout off their evil and widely distributed. The silent majority going largely un noticed and thus making recipients of the news know only what they have been told. All in all leading to disadvantage for gay people living in those cultures and misinforming gay people who wish to visit those countries. Sometimes the forcefully pushing of a sexualised relationship (whatever gay/straight/trans it may be) actually is against the ethics of the culture and it's promotion of the sex that is not tolerated rather than the kind of sex.
 
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blackbottom2

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To follow on from the above I guess the real clash between east and west cultures had its roots within Victorian society where the rich, affluent west with obscene amounts of money but repressed Victorian moralities ventured out to exotic and at the time "liberated" cultures like north Africa et al. In search of their noble princes and savages or dusky dark semi nude beauties. Many of whom were willing to accept the sex and in a way hold power over the western invaders and the cash was just a bonus. The danger was they were becoming a society reliant on the sex trade and that's where the religious elements brought about the similarities to sodom and Gomorrah and thus began to stamp down on it assisted by Christianity.

Although Muslim cultures are littered with many people living openly in same sex relationships and being widely accepted it seems that recent years have brought about the hard core fundamentalist who use favoured excerpts to denounce homosexuality whereas the holy books often were against the practise of a sexualised out of control community where rape and degradation was not to be tolerated. The abrahamic religions are similar in their denouncing of this out of control society.

Thus when the gay rights community attempt to make changes they are often met with fierce resistance it's my belief it's not against the sexuality but more against the sexualisation of a comparatively poorer society by a more dominant wealthier society with religious zealots thrown in for good measure.