Why I "Unliked" WHOF

For those of you who don't know what WHOF stands for it is an acronym for Wipeout Homophobia On Facebook. I originally "liked" this page a few months back because I am a person who strongly believes in treating everyone equally regardless of their lifestyle. If you are gay, straight, or bisexual. I don't care. I am a straight woman who loves all of her friends equally and I believed this page really did some good work showing that we are all just people and deserve to be treated with respect no matter what our beliefs are.

This page was wonderful, it showed pictures of lots of happy couples, gay or straight. I loved seeing the pictures of different people they posted on their "happy couples" albums. Because to me it showed me the amount of happiness that everyone deserves...not just a select few.

If you look closely there are a few pictures in this collage of every type of couple. These are the type of pictures that you can expect to find on this fan page that was created by a few people in the UK that mostly get the word out that it is ok to be who you are. This was a page where no one was judged or crucified for how they believe they wanted their happiness. I am all for the love. Then all in one posting that was changed; I was crushed.

This is the picture that started the whole thing. Obviously, this picture has been photo-shopped very carefully. But I do not believe that the button on her chest was. This is a picture of a woman who is running for some kind of government official in the UK. She is simply doing what she wants to do. She is stating her opinion. Now, I know a lot of you are thinking but Rachel, this is something that you do not believe in. I don't believe that marriage should be just between a man and a woman but that is my opinion. I believe that everyone should have the right to marry who they want to marry and we should not impede on their form of happiness. Now this does not mean that I am going to suddenly decide to marry a female. That just isn't my style. But I am definitely not against it.

Curiosity got the best of me, and I clicked on the picture to see what it was all about. The comments on this picture started to make my blood boil as I read on. I have never at any point in time seen/heard/read any of my own friends that are gay ever use any hateful slanderish comments against people who do not agree with their lifestyle. I know that they are some of the most amazing people on the planet and I have never witnessed them act foolish when it came to anyone disagreeing with their lifestyle. I know it must hurt on the inside, but they walk with their heads held high as they should. I have been so proud of all of them for not participating in the crap that is being posted all over the internet. I am not sure that I could do the same if someone ever spoke to me or treated me differently because they didn't agree with my lifestyle. So they have all proven to be bigger people than me. I think, I must be jaded and really, I have done a great job choosing my friends because the people who were letting these hateful comments fly out of their fingers were unbelievable.

That picture is just a glimpse of what was really said about this woman on this page. And what kills me is that the moderators on the page allowed this. They have an area on facebook fan pages that is called the about section and after I saw some of the harsh things people were saying I explored a little bit. I found this:

What are the rules of membership ? RULES OF MEMBERSHIP 1.Hate speech is illegal in the UK and most of the free world, and is also against Facebook's rules of use.We will delete any hate speech immediately along with the member who used it. This goes for any personal attacks to admin or members, calls for violence, racist, homophobic, bi-phobic, trans-phobic , sexist remarks or bullying of any nature, this includes the ridicule of people who make grammatical or spelling errors. 2.If you've had a bad day and want someone to take it out on Wipe Out Homophobia is not the place to come, we will not stand for abuse towards any member of the group or the admin team in any way, shape or form,all admin on this group are volunteers and do not deserve some of the disgusting comments and mail sent via Facebook, there will be no discussion on this matter you will simply cease to be a member. 3.If you are unhappy with the amount of posts per day we suggest that you click HIDE in your news feed, as the regularity of posts will not decrease no matter how often you moan, also if you do not like a post, then rather than moaning about the post we would rather you made something that is more to your taste and send it to us and if it's any good we shall use it, we call this "put up or shut up". 4.The group is here to have links to homophobic groups, pages and profiles removed from Facebook, we have been successful at this with over 3000 removed in our short life, and countless thousands of pictures and comments have been removed for containing hate speech, if you do not wish to have hate speech removed from Facebook you've joined the wrong group.

Now, after having read that I was shocked and completely appalled that the moderators on this page would post this picture up as a free-for-all to bash the daylights out of her. Don't get me wrong as I mentioned previously, I believe you should be able to marry who you want to marry. But this kills me that they would dangled a piece of chicken in a pool full of alligators. It was like the lynching mob came out and wanted to "kill the beast." If they posted this and thought nothing of this sort would happen then they were excuse my language....FUCKING IDIOTS. I was so upset that I decided to comment on this photograph as well. And before my comment was buried under the hundreds of comments that came I saw that I actually had the most likes on my comment.

Here's the screen shot with my posting on the top.

Just in case you can't read what I wrote....I copied it for your reading pleasure: No, the badge is a simple showing of her opinion. Which she is entitled to. You guys calling her names are just as bad as someone calling someone out for being gay. I liked this page because it was about the love. But after seeing this petty post to allow a free for all on someone's opinion. I will unlike it. I'm about equal rights, not slaughter at differing opinion. If you don't like her don't vote for her. But don't crucify her either because then you are just as guilty.

All of this has gotten completely out of hand and honestly has started a war between people in the craziest of ways. What's worse is that this is actually going on in the rest of the world as well and is NOT OK. I used to think this page was a great way of showing the love until they threw someone under the bus. If you are so for equal rights then don't beat someone up over their beliefs. Because now you just look like the pot calling the kettle black. Where is the love in that?

Shortly after I copied what I wanted to write about because well, I can use their material because it was not copyrighted and well, what are they going to do about it? I went up to the top of their page and "unliked" it. Don't get mad at someone who advertises what they believe when you do the same thing by wearing "pride buttons" or anything of that nature. I believe in equal rights...and that is it. Is that not what this fight is all about to begin with? Equality? Think about it. If that's what you want then that is how you should act. Equal rights has no boundaries...yes it even has room for people who disagree with certain lifestyles.



The end.