"I have a gay friend" does not make you less of a bigot, people

[jaquiel]

I don't really understand why the fuck people feel as though this argument is even vaguely approaching valid. The whole, "You can't say someone like me is against gay people - I have a gay friend!"

Putting aside the fact that if you deny someone the same rights that you have, you're the worst fucking friend ever, there's also the fact that the

Comments

[hieronymousb]

Ha! Ironically, people were just discussing this on a recent entry of mine It's very true. What your friends are/believe has no bearing on what you are/believe. I have friends with all kinds of views I don't agree with. Doesn't mean jackshit for my own views. If you can tolerate "gay friends", all it means it you are not necessarily the total scum of the Earth who would dropkick a friend out of friendship for being gay. It doesn't mean you may not have other homophobic biases which you need to confront.

In the same light, I think the "I have XYZ friends" card actually becomes a pass for some people to become that much more homophobic or racist and feel they are justified in talking shit. Case in point: in my geography class last spring, there was this guy who was saying some seriously racist shit, like joking to some black friend that he was going to beat him up or whip him or something, but he was like, oh, it's not racist! Because I have black friends, and my black friends are okay with me talking that way