the gay movement
Saturday, July 05, 2008 (2:33 PM)
not a happy one, definitely.
in april this year, mediacorp was fined SGD$15,000 by the media development authority (MDA) for airing a home improvement show featuring a gay couple and their adopted baby. this was their second breach of the code. but this feature was not so much an issue since the reality TV series The Amazing Race had passed broadcast laws smoothly for a few seasons while featuring gay couples in these races. what ultimately sealed the fine was the congratulatory gesture by the host which presented gay couples as an acceptable family unit.
in the free-to-air TV programme code, programmes that promote, justify or glamourise gay lifestyle are unacceptable. normalising gays is a big nono for the authorities. but i'd question this move.
gay lifestyles are not matters of choice. they are matters of nature. not allowing gays to be part of the norm is unjustifiable. for one, featuring gays as an acceptable family unit does not and will not turn non-gays to gays. being gay is not a choice, i reiterate. if one is not gay, he will not be gay no matter how "normal" it is.
while i do recognise the problem in glamourising such lifestyles - as the non-gays may try to be gay in order to be "cool" - but like how fads work, they are just what they are. when the children grow up, they would ultimately understand their sexual inclinations. portraying it as a norm and glamourising it, are 2 different matters.
not accepting (as opposed to normalising) it, however, ostracizes the gays who happen to be gay - again - not by choice. it simply makes them feel suppressed, unable to live their right to a normal life. always under the scrutiny and judgments of the heterosexuals.
this creates more problems as some may participate in heterosexual marriages in order to conform to the social understanding of a "normal" family unit. it destroys their own life and happiness. it destroys the lives and happiness of their spouse who only later come to realise that they married a gay. it destroys the lives of the children who will get mocked by their peers that their father is a gay.
but when gay lifestyle becomes more acceptable, such problems cease. the gays do not marry women. families do not get broken up. the children do not get laughed at because such relationships are no longer "weird".
i'm not promoting the normalising of gays. neither am i against it. i'm just wondering why it can't be accepted? let's just forbid public displays of affection. even heterosexual acts are frowned upon anyway.