Perspectives
It’s a funny thing, a point of view. Rather like wondering why your photos of a sunny day never look as rich as your memories, until you take your sunglasses off and realise you were looking at the world through a filter, we don’t often twig to the preconceptions and prejudices we bring to an issue.
This story has been doing the rounds of the ‘net lately. Responses are interesting – either it’s clear evidence of a media/political/social conspiracy to discriminate against gay folk, or it’s a triumph for equality that someones sexuality is finally recognised as having bog all to do with an act of decency and humanity. Equally interesting is that the originator chose to pick up on the “Christian fundamentalist” tag for Anders Breivik, rather than the “right-wing extremist” one more generally used (in the UK press at least). So the whole thing is instantly mired in prejudice and assumptions that generally mis-represent pretty much everyone and militate against any useful or constructive discussion.
Unfortunately, we’ll doubtless never know whether it is just “one of those things”, or whether there really was a deliberate suppression of this particular tale. Equally we may never know whether the couple mentioned rescued 40 people single-handedly (or couple-handedly), or whether they were simply part of the overall effort of others with boats who did so. Not that it matters – simply piling in to do what they could is more than enough on its own. What’s pretty much certain, though, is that far more heat than light will be generated, and most comment will simply reinforce the writer and reader’s existing prejudice, rather than achieving anything positive.
Still, the tabloids missing out on the chance for a “lesbian lovers” story is kind of refreshing, I suppose.