In the last few months I have run across a phenomenon which I cannot for the life of me understand. Most of the time when I cross paths with a person who does not support equal rights for homosexuals, that person presents the various edicts of their religion as the main reason for their support of the social rejection of gays, with an additional admission that they personally find homosexuality 'gross'.
Lately I have met a few atheists who do not believe homosexuals deserve equal rights, and their position remains essentially the same as the christian position, minus the religion. Which is to say, these people don't support equal rights for gays because they feel homosexuality is gross.
That's it. That's the only reason.
Now, I'm not saying these people don't dress their position up in misleading or grandiose wording such as claiming that homosexuality is unnatural (ignoring the facts that homosexuality occurs without any 'unnatural' intervention, making it entirely natural and that homosexuality occurs in many many animal cultures beyond humans as well) or claiming that homosexuality is a choice and that these people have equal rights if they 'choose' to be 'normal'. Hardly anyone comes out and says the real reason they oppose these people's basic rights - because homosexual relationships personally make them uncomfortable. I have to imagine a bit of dressing up is required when the truth of the position is so glaringly ignorant and selfish.
I have to wonder if these atheist homophobes don't allow us a unique view into the honesty of the anti-gay position. The religious tend to suppose a kind of helpless bystander role when confronted by the glaring disregard for another human being's rights with an air of "Don't blame me, God says it's wrong." When an atheist opposes homosexuality, you see the inspiration for the opposition for what it is - the selfish assumption that personal opinion of a majority should trump individual rights. I submit that this is the real reason for the rejection of homosexual rights among the vast majority of people and religion is a convenient and often unopposed excuse to hide behind.
I strongly urge any atheists out there who oppose homosexual rights to replace anything they have to say about homosexuals with the term 'atheists' and see if you still think the position is fair and logical. To religious America, which is currently the majority of this nation, your reasons for not supporting homosexuals are the same reasons they don't feel we atheists deserve our rights. It's not fair for that kind of treatment to be allowed to anyone, regardless of how 'gross' you think they are.
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