My Chat with a Homophobe - Stardoll

"Why do you support gay people?"

My answer to this question is: "I support human rights for all people."

On June 30, the last day of Pride Month, I recieved this question through a Stardoll chat message from a stranger. Their name won't be mentioned in this Starblog post, in order to protect their identity (Stardoll staff edit: the account in question has since been closed for after receiving multiple reports that they were breaking the One-Stop Rules). My instincts told me to not take this person seriously and as my mouse cursor hovered over the "block" button, I felt compelled, a sudden urge to respond to them, which of course was a mistake. However, this proved to be an interesting exercise. I hope this experience will help readers learn how to navigate these kind of situations...

The stranger responded to me with the following nine messages in this exact order:

1. "You know that homosexuals pose a danger. Do you know how many diseases can affect them?? Like AIDS"

2. "I will ask you a question, and you have to answer me frankly. Will you let your children grow up in a society like this one and let them be homosexuals?"

3. "This is from me. I will fight so that my children do not grow up in an ignorant society. I want my children to be straight and homosexuality is something I do not like. This is why I will fight them ..... No for homosexuality."

4. "I want to understand with you to make it clear that homosexuality is not a good thing but you will not understand what you see."

5. "You seem to be one of them."

6. "You are a bad person."

7. "I swear to you, he will come to you the day you will regret what you say. The Lord will hold you accountable for everything you do."

8. "I am going but to keep my talk in your ear, remember that you are a bad person. Remember that you will receive severe punishment on the Day of Resurrection."

9. "You have been warned the SEATIC... you will regret...I will go now. Bye."

~*~

When this happens, you should know you are absolutely within your right to report and block homophobic messengers and their threats. Stardoll does not tolerate homophobia, hate speech and other harassment that makes people feel unsafe.

To the people who do not support the LGBTQ+ community, this is for you:

Misconceptions about AIDS and LGTBQ people have been debunked and according to the World Health Organization:
"Key populations, their clients and sexual partners accounted for 64% of new HIV infections in West and Central Africa, and for 25% of new HIV infections in the East and Southern African subregion. Key populations and their partners accounted for around 95% of new HIV infections in eastern Europe and central Asia and in the Middle East and North Africa in 2018."

Most notably, HIV is by no means confined to LGBTQ people. Anyone, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression or other factor, can acquire HIV. Calling HIV a “gay” or “LGBTQ” disease is medically untrue and only serves to perpetuate harmful stereotypes about people living with HIV and members of the LGBTQ community.

AIDS and HIV are a major public health concern and cause of death in many African countries. In the countries of sub-Saharan Africa most affected, AIDS has raised death rates and lowered life expectancy among adults between the ages of 20 and 49 by about twenty years. Children are actually being born with AIDS. It can be contracted in many different ways. AIDS does not discriminate. Anyone can contract AIDS.

I would be doing you all a disservice if I didn't provide resources.

Please learn more by educating yourselves with these helpful sources:

unaids.org

Search HIV Myths at avert.org

Search LGBTQ+ Myths at strongfamilyalliance.org

Search 10 anti-gay Myths Debunked at SPLCenter.org

Resources for LGBTQ+ & allies:

suicidepreventionlifeline.org/help-yourself/lgbtq/

www.cdc.gov/lgbthealth/youth-resources.htm

Search on YouTube to watch:

Sex & Sexuality: Crash Course Sociology #31

LGBTQ: Understanding Sexual Orientation and Gender Identities

This Is What LGBT Life Is Like Around the World | Jenni Chang and Lisa Dazols | TED Talks

Spirituality and sexuality. You can have both | Rev. Dr. Brent Hawkes, C.M. | TEDxToronto

Living Intersectionality

ABOUT ME: For the purpose of this post and to provide absolute clarity, I am AllDolledUp, but my friends on here call me ADU. My pronouns are she / her / ella / elle. I am a cisgender female, and as for my ethnicity, I identify as LatinX. I am biracial Black with Afro-Latin background. I speak fluent Spanish and English and I am passionate about learning languages. My nationality is American and as for my sexual orientation: I openly identify as fitting in within the asexual spectrum. This is something I prefer to keep private, because quite frankly, its not anyone's business what anyone does with their personal life.

A complete stranger who does not know me at all thought it was their duty to 'educate' or 'warn' me about the danger gay people pose, and how I will regret supporting them. This happened after my posts about LGBTQ+ culture were published on the StarBlog and I was genuinely pleased with the warm reception these posts recieved until this fateful encounter occured.

This stranger called me a bad person. I'll guess it probably has to do with their own implicit biases. I asked, "Why am I a bad person? You don't even know me. I have compassion for all human beings, and that includes gay people." What was most disconcerting was the way this person expressed themselves with condescension and patronized me no matter what I said to them. I've met people like this all my life, and the best thing you can do is to show them that love is the opposite of prejudice. Ignorance can't win against compassion.

I know that these kind of encounters can be avoided by blocking and ignoring the homophobic people, but I couldn't stay quiet. I was being targeted by someone who had read my blog posts, and sought out with the goal to silence me with their ignorant ideology and threats.

Ironically, the person who sent me these messages supports Black Lives Matters on their presentation. You can't say you support the rights of a marginalized group and then deny the rights of other groups.

When life throws chats with homophobic messages at me, I write about it to educate others. I will not be silenced.This platform is a privilege and I will continue voicing what's important for those who don't have the same oppurtunity. I will keep on writing about what matters to me. Don't let any negativity affect your life; be yourself. Thank you for reading.

Signing off,

AllDolledUp