Misinformation about LGBT+ people

One of the biggest challenges to helping people better understand LGBT issues is trying to get past the enormous amount of misinformation that already exists.

I have heard my friends say something that is totally wrong about the LGBT+ community, and here is how I responded to them:

1. They said: “More and more people become gay” or “Don’t talk with them, you will become gay like them.”

I said: In 1973, the World Health Organization concluded that LGBT+ is not a mental health disorder. LGBT+ is not a disease and LGBT+ people are not sick. Therefore, you cannot become LGBT+ or be injected with LGBT+.

Because nowadays society is more accepting of LGBT+ people, they are having more support to come out. Once again, LGBT+ is not an infectious disease so we cannot say that there are more people becoming LGBT+ than in the past.

(If you belong to the LGBT+ community, you can seek for some support here)

2. They said: “He is effeminate/ He takes so much care of his appearance. So they must be gay” or “Do you know she is lesbian? Why does she pretend to act like a normal girl? She must be tomboy.”

I said: Not all gay men are effeminate, and not all lesbians are tomboys. While there are some gay and lesbian persons who fit these stereotypes, they are not representative of all homosexual people. LGBT people generally look and act like everyone else.

And everyone can take care of themselves, not only gay men. #EveryoneIsEqual and everyone can do what they want.

3. They said: “Don’t talk with that girl. She is a lesbian. She is flirting with you/ She will fall in love with you.”

I said: What about for heterosexual people? Why don’t you say: “Don’t talk with any guy in the world. They are flirting with you”?

The reason that a lesbian woman is attracted by another woman does not mean that they will fall in love and flirt with any woman (nd the same with gay men and other sexual orientation).

4. They said: “LGBT+ people are bad because they commit crimes like raping, using drugs, or sex trafficking”

I said: Any people can commit those kinds of crime, not only LGBT+ people. We cannot judge the whole community by just the bad actions of one person.