I don’t have a problem with homophobes. Some of my friends are homophobes. And while I don’t agree with their lifestyle choice, it’s not my place to judge others, even if what they’re doing is an affront to everything I believe in. As far as I’m concerned, they can hate whomever they want as long as they don’t try any of that with me.
And please, just don’t do it in public. I don’t want to have to explain to my (theoretical) kids why you are behaving in such a disgraceful way.
I understand it’s tough to be a homophobe in this day and age. It seems like the world is against you, constantly telling you how your way of thinking is immoral and wrong. You are being persistently attacked for feelings that are beyond your control when all you are trying to do is exercise your Constitutional right to express those feelings.
And now you have to worry about these anti-homophobic laws that are making their ways through legislatures across the world. Will you be legally persecuted just for being anti-gay? Certainly, we can’t have that in America.
Well, fear not, my friend. Kansas has heard your cry and the representatives of the people have taken steps to create a safe haven for other homophobes like you. The state’s House of Representatives last week passed a bill that would allow you and your business to express your views by denying services to the gays who offend your delicate sensibilities. If you see two men together and find yourself feeling uncontrollable feelings, you can simply tell these men to stop acting without concern for other people and kick them out.
I understand. You are the victim. Your rights to freedom of expression need to be upheld. No one should be allowed to prevent you from being who you are. It’s just a good thing you were able to stop this before Big Government started passing laws like the Nazis, preventing you from being served at public places or from getting good jobs because of who you are and what you believe. I mean, seriously, that would be just about the most authoritarian, fascistic, Hitler-esque thing one could do.
***
Satire aside, I do know people I honestly consider to be friends who might object to this message because they don’t agree with marriage equality or a military that does not discriminate based on sexual orientation, and that’s fine. I’m never going to change their minds, and I respect their right to hold to their positions. I even accept that some folks whom I genuinely esteem believe being gay is a sin. I disagree, but I can appreciate our differences.
The problem I have is with the victim mentality. People who disagree about marriage equality can have a civil debate. But to say that there exists some kind of nefarious homosexual agenda that aims to subjugate good Christians is an absurd lie. Many people who are gay, including friends of mine, are Christians themselves, and would never want to see their faiths harmed. They are also American and love our country because it allows them to be who they are without having to worry about government-sponsored actions detrimental to their well-being.
Most Americans, no matter where they fall on the left-right spectrum, can agree on a basic principle: we should be allowed as many freedoms and liberties as possible without hindering the rights of other human beings. Your right to call someone a demon or subhuman is just as valid as my right to say you have beautiful eyes. However, your right to kill is not more important than someone else’s right to live.
This precept holds true in civil rights as well. You have every right to hate me for being different than you, but you have no right to hurt me because of that hatred. Your problems with people who are different from you are your own and cannot be legislated — and certainly not under the guise of “religious liberty” that only applies to your own interpretation of religion.
Stop fearing the “gay agenda.” The only agenda anyone is pushing is for civil rights. Nothing that is being advocated by the LGBT community and its allies will infringe on your rights in any way. You will still have the right to hate whomever you want, and you will still have the right to be treated like a human wherever you go.
The anti-gay agenda, however, is about taking away rights, not granting them. And Republicans in the Kansas House tried to take a huge step in advancing that restrictive agenda. Thankfully, the president of the Kansas Senate has put the bill on ice. If she had not, men and women who are gay would be treated differently for who they are and whom they love. That would be someone’s “right” to hate trumping another person’s right to live, and that is wrong.
A law like the one proposed in Kansas cannot stand and would not pass even simple Constitutional scrutiny, despite what Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia would inevitably say. State law cannot violate the U.S. Constitution. In the end, a discriminatory law like this would prove a huge favor to gay rights advocates; its striking-down would set a precedent to be called upon in all future cases.
Some of you will disagree with me. I’m glad you will. We all need to have our views challenged. I welcome the debate, and I look forward to hearing from you.