no - I got both "ways" your message can be interpreted
I didn't say you were downplaying the significance of the deaths
but I do say through the identification of 'difference' - of 'other' - you're removing
the significance of the reasons FOR those deaths (saying they are "immaterial to the fact")
do you postulate a causality between gay (etc) identification as a cause for their deaths?
or are you simply sharing that in a world without 'labels' these deaths wouldn't occur?
if the latter... I agree it's a utopian idea - that maybe we're moving ever so slowly towards
- but I don't think stating it to those being hated, or their supporters, is sensitive or useful
and not being in the hated group you have no authority to recommend it
lastly you write: "they happened to be homosexual"
no - it happened BECAUSE they were homosexual - buuuut not because THEY identified themselves and grabbed those labels first... the 'pride' movement came about as a strategy of subverting the original prejudice in the first place
for millennia humans anthropologically had (still have) a built in 'warning' to recognise difference primarily for survival
so 'things' or persons considered 'out of place' were noticed and viewed with caution
the 'Other' has always paid the price of being different from the group...
but you don't tell the 'Other' to stop feeling pride in their difference - they're educating the 'group' by their 'pride'
"you teach people how to treat you"
if humans can survive on Earth long enough
eventually the labels will fall away
also - consider that some labels can be useful
also - some people really like having labels/descriptors
and just as I don't get to say what's right for you
you don't get to say what people who live lives you don't relate to or can't - from your position of (comparative) safety, you don't get to say what they should do or feel or believe
you say (twice) - "in my mind" - this is my whole point - your mind (life) is not directly affected so you
can have feelings of expectation that your philosophy should be the 'norm' more easily
google intersectionality
btw: the "need to identify" always comes from the dominant culture/group
who's that been for thousands of years?
heterosexual males
and if you're in the dominant group you won't
know you're speaking from a place of ignorance
can you see you're 'victim blaming'?
by this I mean you're expecting the situation to be fixed by those who are penalised by it
if you
knew what it's like to be the 'other' (to the strongest extent) you might have
the wish for a label free world but you wouldn't have written this thread... because this thread is essentially arguing for the hated to become passive and wait for the labels others gave them in hatred - to somehow magically disappear.
capisce?