Quote:
Originally Posted by Engine09
How on earth would anyone take the wacky stance that they're being "forced" when they're simply being asked to participate in making people feel welcomed and included?
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Imagine being asked to support something you're against (rightly or wrongly) and the penalty for saying no is being ostracized by the public, yet the penalty for saying yes is the sacrifice of your own beliefs.
The topic right now is pride tape. Sometimes the topic is abortion. Sometimes the topic is war. Sometimes the topic is foreign policies. Sometimes the top is religion. Sometimes the topic is science. Sometimes the top is social programs. Sometimes the topic is... and on and on and on.
Obviously, I'm on the side of people being allowed to love and marry whomever they choose... but I'm not so oblivious to what's going on around me that I can't recognize the positions people are being placed in on either side.
I know, I know... pride tape is good... normalizing someone's freedom to be themselves is good... but maybe tomorrow's topic will be something you don't agree with. How are you going to feel then?
People should ultimately be free to believe in what they want to, or not believe in what they don't want to... but unfortunately there aren't many societies in the world that are mature enough to handle that sort of thing.
As I've said before, we should be striving to elminate the extremes on both sides. The ones that hate and act upon that hate in violent ways (physically, mentally, etc)... but also the ones that bully and ridicule whomever doesn't believe in the same things they do.
At the end of the day, it's not like Eric Staal is out there protesting against Pride or beating up LGBTQ+ people etc. He's just politely refusing to wear a jersey or use rainbow tape. We don't know what his upbringing was. Maybe he was raised in a strict, religious home and had it drummed into him from childhood that "gay is evil."
Maybe we can just put our jerseys on and tape up our sticks and support our causes without also having to point and laugh and throw rocks at whomever doesn't join in?
(Note that at no point in this post have I advocated in favour of any type of violence or denial of human rights. That kind of stuff should always be dealt with accordingly, regardless of what anyone believes in.)
Edit: I only mention Eric Staal because he's probably the biggest name of the players who didn't wear the jersey. None of this is specifically about Eric Staal. This isn't a "leave Britney alone" thing, I just used his name as an example.
