once wild

tyleroakley:

This weekend, activists in Uganda held their first Gay Pride. This is a country where homosexuality is punishable by death. This is a huge step for human rights, and I can’t even fathom the bravery it took to participate. (via)

I remember sitting in on a debate my students were holding—not participating, just listening—on the topic of homosexuality.  The question wasn’t whether gay marriage should be legalized in Tanzania but whether homosexuality should be legalized.  I remember being overwhelmed with the vehemence, people I love who stood up and shouted, “Anyone who supports it should leave.”  I remember being fascinated by the arguments of the pro-side as they were mostly based on production and agriculture.  Mostly I remember thinking, ‘How do we change hearts?’ because these were wonderful people—people I loved, people who loved me, people who were normally kind and compassionate human beings—and yet the girl who tutored me, who introduced me to her family, who let me dig in her family’s farm with her (and laughed at my terrible hoeing skills), who brought me into her home and fed me wanted me to leave, wanted me to be someone illegal in her country.

And I think the answer is…this, saying that anger and hatred—and killing—should have no place in the discussion.