Reply #57: I get where your coming from

[FreeState]

I really do - however could you turn this around and put yourself in my shoes and see how unwelcoming this appears? I feel like your attacking my sincerity over the only two posts I have ever made here and very little knowledge of who I am and what I stand for. Should one have to prove themselves or take an interest in every issue on this board before they can start a dialog or educate themselves? Does it matter what brought a person to the point where they are trying to make a difference? Just because I have not posted here before this issue does not mean I do not have any interest in other issues pertaining to this board. Sure it was the motivating factor for me to start reading the AA forum - but there are other issues Im interested in learning about and working on.

No community or group of people is 100% on the same page ever and trying to speak for a community or demanding one person speak for them is not healthily or helpful IMO. If someone asked me to speak for any group of people I belong to I would say I can give you my opinion but I can not speak for everyone. How could I?

Knipp is an ass IMO. I have never seen him speak, never visited a page of his and never will. If it was up to me anyone who exposed that type of racism and covert hatred for any other human being would be banned from my community - however as I said I dont speak for the LGBT community - just myself. I have spoken out about him when he has come up in conversations and most of my family and friends know I wont stand for that type of hatred in my house or around me.

I think it would be a colossal mistake to not talk about Prop 8 with people in other communities. I have personally spoken out about Prop 8 to LDS church members, Evangelicals and Catholics. I have spoken to my Mormon family about how painful it is and have had my membership removed from the records (I have not been in many many years, not have I supported the Church in anyway since I left way back when over women's rights issues and Blacks and the Priesthood - which in an of itself would take another thread to discuss). I have spoken to everyone on my street about it - no matter what their background - and my street is extremely diverse. So I respectfully disagree that its not being discussed outside of of one specific community. At least not in my personal experiance. I have never blamed any group of people for the passage of Prop 8 except for individuals that voted for it regardless of whom they were and plenty of blame is to be had in the GLBT community for many many reasons - from running an awful campaign to not stopping it from being placed on the ballot in the first place. If you dont believe me please search my name in the GLBT forum.

Im looking forward to getting to know you and the posters in this forum better and hoping I learn a lot and hopefully make a difference in the process.