Wear Purple on the 20th!

On October 20th, people around the world will be wearing purple to stop homophobic abuse. I strongly urge everyone to help this cause. It's one of those cases where simply making people aware of the issue might actually do something - and wearing purple shouldn't be too hard. If you don't already have something, stop by the dollar store and find a bandana or something.

Also, I hope that when you talk about this issue you will promote acceptance and awareness, not just tolerance. Tolerance means that there is something different, something irksome, something that we just need to deal with... gay people are not different. A gay person and a straight person aren't likely to be any more different than a straight person and another straight person.

Think about it this way:

About 1/10 people are gay - probably more, since that stat can't possibly include closeted gays.

• 1/10 people in the world live on an island
• 1/10 Americans use an e-reader
• 1/10 Americans are unemployed
• 1/10 people can't see 3D (with those red and blue glasses)
• 1/10 Americans need government help to get food
• 1/10 people in France live alone
• 1/10 Americans suffer from depression
• 1/10 Dutch people work at or from home
• 1/10 people use Google Street View when planning a vacation
• 1/10 people (might just be Americans, not sure) aged 15-65 look after someone who is chronically ill or disabled
• 1/10 Chinese people shop online
• 1/10 people have reported an out of body experience
• 1/10 people lose their lives in fires while trying to save other people
• 1/10 people are afraid to urinate in public (washrooms or otherwise)
• 1/10 people are injured while using a mobile phone
• 1/10 people in the U.K don't plan on retiring
• 1/10 people do harm to themselves at some point in their lives

In most cases, a 1/10 stat is a "you're not alone" stat. I mean, it's 10% of the population. That's no small number. In the U.S. alone, that would be around 31,044,500 people! In the world, that's 687,410,000 people!


Why is it that the 1/10 people who are gay are considered "different" when all those other 1/10 people aren't?