Dia Gay, Awak Tak OK?

Saya merasa terpanggil untuk menulis. Akhirnya.

When someone starts feeling suicidal, showing suicidal tendencies, you don't go saying that, oh she's just born that way. That's just who she chose to be, that's who she is, let her be then. She's not harming anyone else except herself. Right?

I think anyone in their right mind would not buy that argument. You would get her help. She's apparently in a severely confused state.

If someone chooses to be aneroxic, bulimic, or addicted to plastic surgery, you don't just let her spiral down the road of self-destruction. You don't ostracize or alienate her either. You don't shower her with judgements or hateful words, lest you want her to feel alone in the predicament she's facing and be stuck in the hell-hole forever.

If that someone is someone dear to you, you lend a helping hand, you help her overcome her sick, twisted reality through support and understanding.

Oh oh and let's not go forgetting about the 'freedom to choose' argument. One has the right to exercise his or her preferences. Everyone should respect that, given that the person involved is not harming anyone else. Right?

What about another someone who loves little kids, more than he should? No, he doesn't like kids' pornography, he just like watching cute kids' pictures and well, enjoys himself. It's not like he goes out preying on little kids, he just enjoys it through his laptop's screen in the safety of his room. He's not harming anyone, nor does he plan to. It's not wrong per se. Take, for example, Humbert, the character from the controversial novel Lolita, a middle-aged man who loved his 12-year-old stepdaughter too much. He didn't rape her even though God knows how deeply infatuated he was with the girl, in fact, she was the one who initiated their first sexual encounter. So basically, he didn't do anything wrong; he just loved her dearly. What could be so wrong with he love? Right?

Ok, let's put kids out of this, it's too creepy.

What about gamblers? As long as they are not married with kids to support, meaning that they don't have a family to ruin, it's their right and their choice, how they want to live their lives. There's completely nothing wrong with their preferences. Right?

What about other substance abusers? If they can afford it, if their daily lives are perfectly in tact, it means that there's nothing wrong if they are addicted to ganja, meth, cocaine, ecstasy, or even sex?

Let me make this clear. I'm not interested in judging people, it takes up too much energy, positive energy. I have no right to judge a person on his/her personal belief or his/her relationship with God because I'm no God. I can only judge someone based on his/her relationship with other human beings.

But that doesn't mean that I would agree with everything that one chooses to believe or do. And when someone that I don't have the right to do even that, well that's just not fair.

I'm talking about the whole blown up issue of homosexuality in Malaysia, after a Muslim guy, decided to bravely come out of the closet, through a video in YouTube, which has been taken down, following death threats.

I'm not taking the side of the supposedly religious individuals who have no single word resembling a civilized and educated citizen, who threatened this guy with death threats that he felt compelled to limit his time outside in public. What are you people planning to achieve through that? Personally I'm embarrassed that people of the same religion as I am react in such a way. Akal pendek sungguh. OK, that is me, judging.

But to those who hold the opinion that our country should start accepting and embracing homosexuality as another way of life, like being vegan or vegetarian, that's just not fair. It's like forcing an opinion down one's throat.

Personally I think it's not an innate characteristic, like the ability to roll your tongue and the colour of one's skin and eyes. It is a choice. What differs it from suicidal tendencies, self-destructions, and addictions? What makes gay-ness not just another result or reaction from childhood trauma? I don't understand how people come to that conclusion, of course I don't, since I don't know what's going on in their head or heart. To me, it's pretty simple, being a heterosexual. Come to think of it, it's just the law of nature. Even plants have reproductive systems, which can only function with both a female and a male part. God has created nature in pairs.

I feel that if one chooses to be gay, so be it. I don't agree with his/her decision, and I have my own personal opinion on homosexuality, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to hate, or stop having contact with that person, just because he/she is gay.

I just hope that this issue will not result in violence in my country, which would be really stupid.

Just as I believe in God, but if a friend one day decides not to anymore, I'm not going to stop being a friend just because of that one decision of his/hers.

I know talk and discussion about core things such as these, which make up the fundamentals of our lives, can escalate into something heated and tense in no time, but it doesn't have to. Let's be civilized and exchange opinions. We don't have to agree with each other's belief, or non-belief, we don't have to make each other see eye-to-eye, that is not the whole point. We should just be able to look each other in the eye and live side by side.