Why My Left and Right Friends Don't Talk To Me Much

I have a theory as to why people seem to avoid my posts when I talk about gay rights.

 

My friends on the right side of the political spectrum, many of whom are devoutly (or at least nominally) religious, might feel that they are betraying their religious convictions by showing any support on such a topic.  There are also some who, because I speak rather freely and boldly on the subject, might suspect that I am gay, and that to criticize my stance on the subject would be to criticize me, their friend.  Related to this, I’m sure there are those who think that if they speak in favor of gay rights, many of their friends will suspect that they must be gay.  So, there’s this fear factor going on that silences my friends on the right.

I suspect that my friends on the left side of the political spectrum distrust me because I frequently use the terms “freedom” and “liberty” in my posts, and, therefore, I must be a Tea Party right-winger, and, therefore, my support of gay rights must be either a sham, or I must be a closet Republican homosexual who is afraid to accept who he really is, and, therefore, I’m just a mixed up guy who needs to find himself before any veracity can be attached to what I write on the subject.  My gay and straight liberal friends might think that I have simply hijacked the gay rights agenda in order to further my true, right-wing “liberty” agenda.  Besides, I have a fundamentalist Christian background, so, that must be where I truly live (even though I walked away from it 10 years ago).  And so, on the left, I am simply written off even while speaking up and supporting a traditionally liberal stance.

So, that's my theory.  How'd I do?

Assuming my theory to be correct (at least partially), I was going to start this paragraph by saying that I have good news and bad news for both sides, but, upon reflection, I see that it’s all good news.

First, if any of you suspect me of anything beyond what I actually write, you’re wrong – on all counts.  Yes, a man who, golly, just loves that female form can actually support gay rights and still find the thought of sex with another man to be quite unappealing.  Shocker!  I think it’s just a matter of growing up and not being so judgmental toward people who are not just like you – you know, that stuff they were trying to teach us in kindergarten.

So, I am neither a closet gay, nor am I a closet Tea Party conservative trying to use the gay agenda.  If my liberal friends don’t believe me, they need to go back and learn how to deduce the meaning of what they read.  I’m not hiding anything; there’s nothing to read between the lines.  I’m free, and freely speak.

If there is one thing that my friends on the right and on the left have in common, which is the same thing that causes them to read some of my posts and scratch their heads, it is what I perceive to be a misunderstanding of liberty.

Liberty is that common, universal human right that creates unity among human beings.  True liberty does not divide and splinter and build walls and sow mistrust and hatred.  Yet, that is what my friends are: divided.  And here I stand, saying, “Gays should be able to marry,” and, “The income tax should be abolished along with the Fed,” and, “Big business should not go unregulated,” and, “The Boy Scouts should not be forced to accept gays, nor should any religion or other private group,” and, “Equal pay for equal work,” and, “Illegal immigrants shouldn’t get a free pass, nor should they be abused,” and, “Under God does not legitimately belong in our nation’s pledge of allegiance.”  I could go on, but I think you get the point.  I’m not schizo – there is a unifying thread: liberty.

We misunderstand true liberty when we think that it is ours for the taking, and then ours to dole out to people who are just like us.  Once you believe it is for you and your group to decide who gets to enjoy liberty, you have negated it.

Christians, you can only ban gay marriage within your fellowship (if you happen to read the Scriptures that way).  You have as much right to ban gay marriage throughout civil society as the Jews have the right to insist that every American male be circumcised.  That right just doesn’t exist – not if you understand liberty.

LGBT community, did you found the Boy Scouts?  Obviously not.  Where do you get the right to dictate to a private group that it must accept openly gay boys and men in its membership?  If you understand liberty, you will understand that you don’t possess that right.  However, you have the right to start your own group with its own rules on membership.

So, the left and the right seize liberty for themselves and, because they don’t really know what it is they’ve grabbed a hold of, commence to dictating how it’s going to go down for everyone else.  Division is the natural result.

Understood correctly and respected, liberty unites humanity.  Misunderstood, it is negated, and we are divided.  We just need to step back and think a little more deeply about what we’re doing.  The good news is, we are all capable of doing that.