———- Forwarded message ———-
From:
Jonathan Cohen <jonathan@gaydatingbible.com>
Date: Tue, Jul 19, 2011 at 1:13 PM
Subject: Ms, The Best Way To Deal With Intolerance…
To: Ms Erik Ribsskog <eribsskog@gmail.com>
Hey Ms,
If you don't need this, consider yourself lucky.
I've dealt with intolerance my whole life… And yes, a lot of
that is because I'm gay.
From close family members refusing to talk to me after I came out
of the closet to name calling and physical attacks when I was
younger in school…
Now that I've got some experience in this life, there's one thing
I can tell you for sure…
Intolerance doesn't go away, BUT… The ONLY way it will affect
your life is if you allow it to.
Even if you ignore your immediate surroundings, you can smell it
in the air by turning on the TV or surfing the web…
"Fag" and "queer" being thrown around as insults… People like
to call celebrities, sports stars or anyone else they don't
like "gay"…
If you just try to filter it out or ignore it, it can still leave
a bad taste in your mouth. The best thing to do is to try to
understand where people are coming from.
Society today is much more gay friendly than it has been in the
past, although I'll be the first to admit we've got a long way to go.
When a straight guy calls his friend a "fag", 99% of the time
it's not a hate motivated comment. It's just a word being thrown
around. It's been in the English language for hundreds of years
and it's not going away anytime soon.
Chances are he wouldn't say that if he knew there was a gay guy
around.
If a close family member can't accept you being gay when you come
out of the closet, it's hard to not take it personally. But you
shouldn't. It's not an attack on your character, it's just that
they don't know any better.
It all comes down to ignorance.
They don't know what it feels like to be gay anymore than you
know what it feels like to walk on the moon.
The trick is to try and understand where they're coming from…
And once you do understand, intolerance hurts a lot less.
Take the higher ground… Understand, educate and NEVER take things
too personally.
We'll discuss this more in depth in a future email.
~ Jonathon Cohen
P.S. I talk about this subject extensively in my newest course,
http://www.GayDatingBible.com
Simple Media Works
Suite F4127, 1905 60th Pl E.
Bradenton, FL, California 34203
United States
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