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sirguym -> RE: Master and pet banned from the bus (1/24/2008 3:09:22 AM)
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I am very much with Aswad, and those in similar vein, on this one. As a white anglo-saxon protestant I have not met much discrimination against myself.
But I tend to be quite demonstrative with girls, in private or in public; I have met verbal name-calling, obscene gestures and threatened violence when doing so out publicly with a Chinese girl, with an asian girl, with transsexuals and with girls dressed in unconventional ways.
Choosing to not do so publicly, self-censoring my own behaviour solves nothing for me or anyone else, indeed it would make me feel that I'm a hypocrite.
Most importantly it would be very hurtful to the girl concerned, in a very damaging way; "he cuddles me in priivate, but is ashamed to do so in public, I bet he would if I were white/a real girl/etc.".
If it is OK for me to show affection publicly when I am with a 'real' white girl, then it should be publicly acceptable for me to show it with any other girl, or indeed a man, regardless of their race or orientation.
So I do it, not to defy convention, not for self-publicity, not as a provocation, but because it is in these small acts of assertion that you define yourself, your pride in what you are, your right to be different and your (and your companion's) right to be who you are.
Exactly the same logic should be applied in this case. It would have been OK to hold hands or walk arm in arm, the leash means the same to them.
And yes I am with the OP; the fact that it 'is' news and that the bus company, etc. backed down is very good news for everybody, a measure of how far we've come; and to an extent, how far we have yet to go.
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