LGBT News Trump now banning words

I think you are confusing things.

I think the LGBT movement frequently does a poor job at explaining some words (or creating words that are indeed really confusing and non-helpful). Discussing this and our fight strategies is totally necessary - a movement without self-criticism can become ineffective.

However, there's no such thing as "too much change". There are people dying. There are people being tortured for being LGBT. It is totally unfair and misleading to blame the LGBT movement for this violence.

"Oh, the problem is the prejudice, but, you see, this wouldn't happen so frequently if these gays didn't try to change things too fast".

This is a really common idea used by bigots, and it makes no sense. We have always suffered. We are suffering. The difference is that now many of us aren't taking the violence like obedient dogs, trying to change things slooooowly because our human owner may kick us if we bark too much.

No, i'm not justifying fanatism in social movements or people rotulating everyone outside of the movement as a "bigot". Certainly that doesn't help.

Again, people are dying. Of course, when we fight for our rights, we will face some backlash. Bigots will try to defend their world, full of prejudice. It isn't an easy process. However, that needs to be done. We can't just sit around while a father shoots it's son for being gay while we say "oh, you know, if the boy explained it calmly to his father, instead of having a boyfriend, maybe in 20 years the father would understand". That makes no sense.

You say there are more urgent problems (or maybe you think these are just words, not really important).

First, having other problems (like hunger) doesn't mean that this is less of a problem (by the way, of course we need to do what we can for our world and think about more than just one issue, but, if you keep thinking like "oh, there is a bigger problem than X", you will always find something more urgent, and you will end up doing nothing).

Second, words, knowledge and politics are power. The violence that happens in the streets when someone beats a gay man wasn't originated there, in that moment. It was the result of words, speeches, hate in the story of the aggressor. In other words, we can't just focus and fix the result of the problem (like arresting the aggressor). We need to end that process, before the physical violence - in the moment where it is "just words".

TL;DR: You can't blame violence on us. We can't stay around like obedient dogs waiting for the people in power to grant us our rights (like "maybe everything will be fine if we obey and ask for things nice and slow. Maybe they will treat us like decent humans one day, but we can't ask for this now, no!"). Yes, not every form of activism works, and some create more backlash than positive effects. But people are dying now. People are being tortured now. We can't sit around for years and years and hope for change, while doing minimal.

The world is ours too. Respect is essential, and no one will give it to us if we don't fight for it. It is not an easy process, but it is necessary.

 

No one is obligated to be an activist. If you prefer to stay quiet and just live your life, fair enough, you deserve that. And i don't say that in a provocative way: It is a choice, and it is perfectly fine to choose that.

However, i think you are wrong in your lack of hope. The world has seen dark days, and in these days, there were people without hope too.

World War II is a clear example of what i'm saying. There were people those days who disagreed with the nazis, but they didn't believe that better days would come. How can you believe in better days when your beloved ones were sent to Auschwitz and other camps, or if you were one of the prisoners?

The nazis, not only with words, but with their tanks, heavy propaganda and weapons warned the world that many more would die. There would be consequences to those who spoke against their regime.

And there were. Many died in one of the bloodiest war in human story. But we defeat them. Their idea is still alive, yes, but they don't control a nation like they did in the past. Because the world had enough. The world decided to speak out and "face the consequences". Many died, but many more were saved, because people decided that it would be hard to go against their warnings, but it was needed.

Obviously, the war is much more than a fight of "good" against "evil", and there were many political interests involved.

But my point is: Lack of hope is totally understandable in dark days. If you are a jew in nazi germany, hope was obviously not an easy thing to maintain. However, the war is over, and, even if there are still some stupid people that call themselves nazis, they don't have the power to make that many people suffer like they did in the past.

And this didn't change because people choose to get by, waiting like "oh, maybe in the future nazis will give us a small part of the world and leave us in peace, but no, we can't fight them, it's too dangerous". No, the world had enough of their bullshit.

Do you want another example? Well, long story short: After the war, Berlin was divided, one side influenced by the USA, and the other by the Soviet Union. Things weren't that great, especially in one side of the city. Well, the people could stand around, hopeless. The wall was heavily guarded, and many people died trying to cross it. Freedom was nonexistent.

However, some people had hope. And they didn't accept their city like that. And, thus, nowadays, the wall is no more. Unsatisfied people changed the world, instead of listening to the warnings: "Don't fight the guards! It has been like this and it will always be!".

Another example, not directly related to the war. During the Industrial Revolution, many children and woman worked like 12~14 hours a day, with only sundays off, in the factories. That wasn't a decent life. Many people probably thought like this: "Oh, this is the way that things are, it is stupid to try to fight it. Let's just hope that sunday comes and we can forget this until monday!". But some people were not satisfied. And, today, while we still have people in that condition, it isn't widely accepted anymore, and many people are constantly fighting to close the factories were this still happens. These children and adults were freed from a type of slave labor because some people decided not to bow to the warnings of the industrial leaders.

An example of my country, Brazil (but you had something similar in the US). Unfortunately, we had slave labor for a long time in our story. Black people were kidnapped in Africa to work in sugar production here. Until some of them had enough. Heroes like[ulr="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zumbi"]Zumbi[/url] died, but now, even if prejudice still exists, slave labor is not as rampant as it was, and we have important black people in high positions here in Brazil (and many are constantly working to reduce the prejudice today).

Another story: Women didn't always had the right to vote. Again, people that didn't accept the world like it is, and the world changed for the better. I think you already know that one.

The world is full of stories about oppression, but it is full of stories about change. And, obviously, change isn't easy. We say we "fight for our rights", not "ask nicely for our rights", because it is a fight. There will be backlashes. However, if we stand around and do nothing, we will end up more oppressed than we are. Many are tortured and killed nowadays for being gay, but it would be a lot worst if we are hiding. Of course fighting has risks, but prejudice is the problem, not our fight. If you have the right to acess the internet in your country and participate in an LGBT forum, it isn't because straight bigots kindly allowed you to do that, in their benevolence, as long as you don't bother them. It is because people fought and are constantly fighting for you to have the right to express yourself. And the fight is not over.

You don't need to take part in the fight if you don't want to. After all, all we desire is to leave life peacefully. However, i refuse to accept the world as it is. I refuse to accept the prejudice that still kills and tortures LGBT people around the world. This fight is mine too, and i will not bow down to bigots. Because change is not only a matter of belief and being full of a false, fool hope. The human story proves that it is hard, but it is possible.

As Paulo Freire, a famous educator (brazilian, which is an honor to say) once said: "The world isn't. The world is being."