A Question For Bigots- Does How Someone Else Lives REALLY Degrade Your Quality of Life?

Or are you so insecure about your morality that you have to force it on those of us who don't share it?

Forget about the Zombie Apocalypse. It’s never going to happen. Worry about the Dumbass Apocalypse. It’s already upon us.

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For those of you who might be new to this, a quick review might be in order:

1. Equal rights don’t mean special rights.

2. Someone being granted equal rights doesn’t mean you’ll have fewer rights. Remember, we’re not talking about pie.

3. Human rights shouldn’t be subjected to a majority vote. Someone’s right to marry shouldn’t be determined by whether or not they can secure a majority of the vote in a referendum.

4. You don’t have to understand or even approve of someone’s lifestyle, gender identity, and/or who and how they love. All you need to do is to repeat this when you’re uncertain: “Live and let live.”

5. Your opinion on how another person lives their life doesn’t come with the right to also determine how that person lives. Your authority ends at the end of your nose.

6. Your opinion on how another person lives doesn’t come with the right to determine where they may shop or the products that may be made available to them. You want to boycott something? Fine, that’s your choice.

7. Your opinions and sensibilities are your own and have no authority or jurisdiction beyond yourself.

8. In other words, when it comes to others and how they live, love, think, believe, and/or act, STFU. It’s really none of your damned business.

Did I miss anything? Perhaps, but I think the above covers most of it. I’m not saying that you’re not free to think and/or believe as you wish, only that you have no right to project those beliefs and/or expectations onto others. You’d never agree to live by the rules of others, so why would you expect others to live by your rules?

Even if you consider your rules “biblical,” not everyone believes in your flavor of God…or even that your God exists. I’m an atheist, and I refuse to believe that one can’t be a moral human being without a healthy fear of God. On the other hand, if you’re convinced it’s possible to be a moral human being only if a judgmental being is monitoring your every thought, word, and deed 24/7/365, I genuinely feel sorry for you. To me, that says you have no moral core of your own and that, independent of your belief in your God, you have the potential to be a sociopath.

No, you don’t have to be pro-homosexuality, pro-transgender, or pro-LGBTQ. You’re entitled to whatever your opinion is on those topics. But those opinions and $1.50 won’t get you a latté at your corner coffee shop. And as much as you might demand that I respect your views, you’re wrong. I’ll certainly respect your right to your opinions, but nowhere is it written or even implied that I must respect them.

And I don’t.

I’ll wager that if you’re anti-homosexuality, anti-transgender, and anti-LGBTQ, you don’t respect my opinion because I fully support the LGBTQ community and their right to live as they see fit. I’m not LGBTQ, and in fact, I’m astonishingly ambivalent toward their “lifestyle.” It has no impact on the quality of my life. That said, I believe strongly in their right to live authentically and openly. No one has the right to piss in their sandbox.

Live and let live. So they do their thing, I do my thing, you do your thing…and everyone goes away happy. Why is that such a difficult concept for so many haters and bigots?

Is there ANYTHING about the LGBTQ community that directly impacts the quality of life of the American Taliban and other haters and bigots? I’d submit that because they exist in widely disparate worlds, nothing- save for hypocrisy on the part of some Conservatives- connects the two. Most haters and bigots may not even know anyone who’s LGBTQ, so their view is probably based on stereotypes and not real-world knowledge.

And then there’s good ol’ garden variety hypocrisy.

(e.g., Ethan Schmidt, the Phoenix-area activist who’s been taking down Pride displays in Target stores, has been rumored also to have been on the gay dating site Grindr. Hypocrisy, thou art truly a thing among those lacking in self-awareness, no?)

So you can call me an ally or whatever word you choose (I prefer “decent human being”), but if something or someone isn’t directly degrading the quality of your life, why not leave them alone and work on getting your own house in order?

I may have spent years at loggerheads with my parents, but I’m incredibly grateful for their teaching me that people are people. I learned from them that I’m no better or worse than anyone else. They made it clear I didn’t have the right to think of myself as superior to others because of who I am, what I believe, or any other personal quality. Because of that, I’ve tried hard to accept others for who they are.

Those lessons have served me well in my varied travels, and they’ve been reinforced by the people I’ve met in and from many countries. Despites our differences when it comes to skin color, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexuality, ad infinitum, ad nauseam, humanity really isn’t all that different. We all want more or less the same things- safety, security, love, freedom from want, and the ability to raise our families free from the influence of Packers fans.

Well, OK, scratch that last one…but you get the idea.

I don’t care what color you are, what you believe, which deity you happen to worship (or not), or who you love. If you’re a good person and treat others with respect, I’ll send the same in your direction. And I’ll be glad to have you in my life.

It happens far too often that people spend WAY too much time, energy, and brain cells concerning themselves with what other people do when it’s truly none of their damned business. If you believe certain things are wrong, inappropriate, and/or sinful, then by all means feel free to live by those rules. However, that doesn’t bestow the right to enforce your morality/rules/laws upon those who may not share your beliefs.

This world would be a far better place if more of us spent time getting our own houses in order instead of devoting time and energy to what others are doing in their lives. Of course, if you believe same-sex marriage is wrong and/or immoral, you probably shouldn’t marry someone of the same gender. But does that give you the right to prevent others who may be wired differently from doing the same thing? And if two men or two women do marry, how does that impact and/or degrade the quality of your life?

The short version, of course, is that what other people do won’t have any material impact on the quality of your life. Yet millions of Americans continue to believe that it’s acceptable for their views and moral framework to become the law of the land.

I strongly believe in “live and let live,” which means “you do you, and I’ll do me.” I don’t have to agree with your decisions or how you live your life, just as you don’t have to approve of my choices or lifestyle…or anything else. In America, we have the right to choose how we live. Unfortunately, there are a large number of religious and socially conservative busybodies who believe it’s their role and right.

Some folks just need to get out more, knowhutimean??