Metanoia

[qos]

In this video from August 2007, the Republican mayor of San Diego offers an emotional explanation of why he is reversing his previously stated opinion and is now supporting the rights of gays and lesbians to marry.

What I find most interesting is the reason for his reversal: that he has a daughter, staff, and friends who are gay or lesbian, and in the end he found he could not look them in the eye and tell them that they and their relationships were less worthy.

Isn't this what it comes down to in so many cases? It's easy to label The Other as a danger or threat so long as they remain safely, distantly, Other. As soon as they stop being Other and start having a name, start being a real person, someone you work with, or a member of your family, perhaps even the person next door, then the old fear-based judgements can not stand -- if your heart is open.

Thanks to the friend who posted this.

Comments

[athenian-abroad.livejournal.com]

Well...from the perspective of sheer political calculation, I'm obviously happy to have all the allies I can get, and a late conversion is better than none. And yet. Can I be the only one who finds this genre ("I suddenly realized that gay people were actual human beings when -- to my amazement -- I noticed that I know one! Or two, even!") more than a little bit annoying?

It strikes me like a case study out of Piaget, in which the subject trapped in some early, immature stage of moral development in which empathy cannot be extended to anyone who isn't "like" the folks they've met personally. In a world of small hunter-gatherer bands, perhaps such a stunted moral imagination would be harmless. But in the 21st century, the inability to intuit that people the likes of whom you've never encountered are nevertheless fully human is a crippling defect, and ought to be a disqualification from any position of community leadership.

So I'm glad that Jerry Sanders's daughter and staff were able to make gay people "real" for him. But I have to wonder: who will make pagans "real" for Mayor Sanders? Or kinky people? Or -- shudder! -- atheists? Or Muslims? Who else's humanity hasn't yet dawned on the Mayor of San Diego?

[qos.livejournal.com]

I can't disagree with anything you've written here -- but I also think that however much we may wish that people didn't need to suddenly discover "My goodness! I actually know a gay/pagan/kinky/trans person and - gasp! - they're not a danger to society!" that seems to be the way the process works. Or at least gets started.