Gay is damaged, straight is normal (was: Re: Slut!Seamus and other ships)

[jdr0918]

<<<Tyler Hewitt wrote...I usually don't get upset when reading things 
like this, but this one was so over the top I couldent let it 
pass.... 
"joywitch_m_curmudgeon" wrote:... just want to thank you for those 
comments, Tyler.  I too, was upset after reading the Sergeant 
Majorette's post and had much the same reaction.  Ron has to be 
straight because he's "normal?"  Harry has to be gay because 
he's "too damaged psychologically to sustain a conventional 
relationship?" Aside from being incredibly offensive, that is 
absolutely ridiculous.  It implies that straight people are all 
perfectly mentally healthy and that gay people are all crazy and have 
screwed up relationships...Do you actually know any gay people...>>> 



The Sergeant Majorette says

I don't know any gay people at the moment because I'm agoraphobic and 
not currently acquainted with anyone outside my family, but there was 
a time when I was acquainted with nearly every male homosexual in the 
city of New York (to answer that question).

Second, I'm talking about mathematical normalcy, which is the only 
true normal there is. Note that nowhere do I imply that *normal* is 
the only positive, healthy way to be. Harry has no frame of reference 
for how he should have been treated. If his best friend in his new 
life is gay, then the Dursleys remain justified in their treatment of 
him because he's still a freak. But if his best friend is the 
unimpeachably conventional Ron Weasley, then even the Dursleys can 
see that their family structure is the odd one out.

Third, if the prevailing opinion around here is that Harry has not 
sustained the kind of psychological damage that would make him a 
problematic father and husband, then I *am* sorry. But my feeling is 
that since we know the story ends when Harry and the gang are 
seventeen, we're going to be left with a Harry who, if he lives (and 
maybe it will be simpler if he doesn't) will be happier working 
through his angst with a therapy buddy with similar issues. I say 
that's Draco (if *he* lives).

I do know that language comes from usage, and that most people 
understand *normal* to mean *right* and *conventional* to mean 
*healthy*. I understand that what I see as a lack of respect for the 
English language may not be as offensive to most as it is to me, and 
I apologize for my tendency to wax dogmatic in the face of such 
assaults. 

I am not normal, nor have I ever been, and I resent the implication 
that calling someone *abnormal* is slander, just as I objected 
strenuously when, during my army days, I heard the term *ladies* used 
as an insult.

--JDR (off to take her own advice about the herb tea, muttering 
about 'young people nowadays...')