Synalon
[12] Conqueror
So essentially, your 'evidence' is a personal anecdote about your feelings, from which you've generalised to the rest of all gay people. Possibly not the greatest basis for such a broad claim, but let's look into things a little further.
From this understanding of the motivations and benefits of coming out, we can perhaps see more clearly why some people might advise their gay friends to disclose their sexuality; perhaps they, too, have come out and had a positive experience, or have heard about the encouraging experiences of others, and so with good reason see coming out as the best course of action.
There is still, of course, a great deal of homophobia in society - some people do see it as criminal in nature, and others actively wish it were literally, legally criminalised. Far from being the cause of gay people coming out, this kind of attitude is cited by people in the closet (see the links) as the very reason they haven't come out: "LGB individuals may anticipate stigmatization, negative judgments, or rejection feelings that deter them from self-disclosing their sexual identity."
As for your seeming hatred of labels, it is just the most pedantic pretentious horse-shit. You demonstrate so much yourself when you have to use the word you're specifically objecting to "for the purpose of brevity/clarity"! Humans use these noises called 'words' to communicate ideas and information. When someone describes another person or themself as being gay, they are usually communicating the information that the person they are referring to is at least primarily attracted to people of the same gender. Far from setting up barriers, 'labels' allow us to more easily exchange ideas and facilitate communication - I know you're a unique and special snowflake (if you'll allow me to label you as such) with your own desires and ideas (however counter-factual they may be); when I'm talking about you or anyone else being gay, I'm not censuring that fact. I am just expressing that you like the cock. What on Earth is wrong with that?
This doesn't make even a whit of sense. Overwhelmingly, people describe coming out as being a positive experience. The findings in these two studies mirror my own experience of witnessing hundreds of coming out stories, from the forums I post on to the many gay people I know in real life; that the vast majority are positive experiences. In what way would you describe "less anger, less depression, and higher self-esteem" as being criminalising? The idea is just patently absurd on its face. Coming out is in fact the exact opposite of self-criminalisation; criminals almost always want all knowledge of their crimes obfuscated, and some will even go so far as to commit additional crimes to this end. Contrast the various goals of coming out - less hiding, fewer secrets and confirmation that the outee has done nothing wrong, to name a few. So whatever mental gymnastics you've performed to arrive at this conclusion are completely beyond me.
From this understanding of the motivations and benefits of coming out, we can perhaps see more clearly why some people might advise their gay friends to disclose their sexuality; perhaps they, too, have come out and had a positive experience, or have heard about the encouraging experiences of others, and so with good reason see coming out as the best course of action.
There is still, of course, a great deal of homophobia in society - some people do see it as criminal in nature, and others actively wish it were literally, legally criminalised. Far from being the cause of gay people coming out, this kind of attitude is cited by people in the closet (see the links) as the very reason they haven't come out: "LGB individuals may anticipate stigmatization, negative judgments, or rejection feelings that deter them from self-disclosing their sexual identity."
As for your seeming hatred of labels, it is just the most pedantic pretentious horse-shit. You demonstrate so much yourself when you have to use the word you're specifically objecting to "for the purpose of brevity/clarity"! Humans use these noises called 'words' to communicate ideas and information. When someone describes another person or themself as being gay, they are usually communicating the information that the person they are referring to is at least primarily attracted to people of the same gender. Far from setting up barriers, 'labels' allow us to more easily exchange ideas and facilitate communication - I know you're a unique and special snowflake (if you'll allow me to label you as such) with your own desires and ideas (however counter-factual they may be); when I'm talking about you or anyone else being gay, I'm not censuring that fact. I am just expressing that you like the cock. What on Earth is wrong with that?
