I am a southerner and a Christian. I am also not a fan of gay marriage being legalized or the trendy nature of being trans-gender. That doesn’t, however, make me bigotted, hateful, or ignorant.
Just because I strongly believe being gay, lesbian, or bisexual is a choice and you’re not born that way; that doesn’t mean I hate any members of the LGBT community. I’m not going to shame them, hurt them, or disrespect them just because I believe differently than them and have chosen to live a different lifestyle than they have. Just like I’m not going to shame, hurt, or disrespect someone because they choose a different career than me or choose a different religion (or no religion) than me. People are people and we all make our own choices in how we want to live our individual lives. That’s the beauty of living in this country.
The biggest problem in all of this that I have is when my opinion isn’t respected because it isn’t the trendy, popular, or politically correct opinion. I am supposed to accept and celebrate a Supreme Court decision that directly opposes my personal beliefs or, if I don’t, I get called hateful or ignorant. That’s the equivalent of me calling a gay person a “fag”. I wouldn’t do that. So why do you call me a bigot? You feel as strongly about your beliefs as I feel about mine. But mine are “wrong” because it’s not supporting “equal rights”? If “equal rights” meant that people would stop being hateful to other people, then I’m on board. But that’s not what it means. It creates an environment where people like me are told to shut up and called names because we believe in something different. Tell me something: how is that any different from what the LGBT community has been crying out for? They have an “alternative lifestyle” but they want their voices to be heard to to not be treated differently. I have “alternative beliefs” but it’s okay to call me names and deem me ignorant. People need to start practicing what they preach.
Another problem I have in what I’ve been seeing on Twitter and other social media platforms is the stereotype of southerners as hateful, racist, idiots. Sure, some southerners are bigots and kind of dumb. But so are some people from the Northeast, Midwest... even the West Coast! Hateful people are everywhere but the South gets pegged as the hate capital of the country. Is it because of a silly flag argument? Is it because of the Civil War? That ended 150 years ago! Move on!
If you choose to celebrate a landmark Supreme Court decision, protest the flying of a “racist” flag, or just live your life in a way that’s different from how I live mine, go for it. Don’t expect me, though, to change my beliefs to accommodate for the changing times just like I don’t expect you to change your beliefs because of this blog post. All I ask is that southerners, Christians, and anyone who holds to similar beliefs get some respect. We don’t deserve to get hate speech spewed at us because we don’t applaud Bruce Jenner for identifying as something he’s not, aren’t excited about the quickly approaching full legalization of gay marriage, and don’t want to watch a bunch of shows about how trendy it is to be trans-gender.
That's it for now...
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