It may just be a matter of striking too close to home, but I can't quite figure out the point you're trying to make. Let me see if I understand what you're saying.
Person from the scary book group: "Gay people can change if they want to."
You: "No, changing things like that is hard. Look at alcoholics."
Them: "Okay, let's look at alcoholics. What they're doing is bad, and so we as a society consider that unacceptable and have frameworks to help them change, because we know it is hard. When I say 'gay people can change' I want to create that same social framework to help them through that hard change."
What I don't understand is how, having now made your analogy, you can continue with it in a helpful manner. Could you explain what you'd say next, in this hypothetical scenario?
Perhaps comparing it to religion would be more fruitful -- if you aren't up to arguing that sexual orientation is not a choice, or if the people you're talking with aren't receptive to that argument, making an analogy to something that is explicitly a deeply-held choice but that doesn't carry the negative weight of alcoholism would be a better idea.
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Date: 2006-06-05 06:36 pm (UTC)Person from the scary book group: "Gay people can change if they want to."
You: "No, changing things like that is hard. Look at alcoholics."
Them: "Okay, let's look at alcoholics. What they're doing is bad, and so we as a society consider that unacceptable and have frameworks to help them change, because we know it is hard. When I say 'gay people can change' I want to create that same social framework to help them through that hard change."
What I don't understand is how, having now made your analogy, you can continue with it in a helpful manner. Could you explain what you'd say
next, in this hypothetical scenario?
Perhaps comparing it to religion would be more fruitful -- if you aren't up to arguing that sexual orientation is not a choice, or if the people you're talking with aren't receptive to that argument, making an analogy to something that is explicitly a deeply-held choice but that doesn't carry the negative weight of alcoholism would be a better idea.
(By the way, Peg, good luck with the book club!)