With the passing of the "Religious Freedom Bill" I was shocked. I still am trying to understand why the bill is even needed, along with trying to deal with all the scrutiny it now puts the state under.. The backers for the bill say "It's nothing different than the other 19 states" and "It's not discrimination, it's for religion" but yet the state's own Governor cannot answer a simple question about whether it's ok for the LGBT community to truly be discriminated against.
You can see that here --->(http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/video/gov-mike-pence-religious-freedom-law-29987447) P.S. he also says "It's not on my Agenda" when asked if the LGBT community should be under the same civil rights as everyone else under Indiana and Federal legislature.. Hmmm. That's a really hard decision, don't you agree? (sarcasm)
I have been thoroughly displeased with the decision of the passing of this law and the people who support such a decision. The reason the title says "you will be left behind" is because that is the truth. The people who believe that the LGBT community does not deserve to have equal rights as everyone else will eventually not be "cool" in the eyes of society. We now are slowly but surely evolving into a society in which we understand that the human endeavor is a hard one.. who are we to decide how one decides to live life and whom they choose to love!? The generation that I grew up in and live in now is a generation that is not tolerant to bullying, the intolerance to ambiguity, or inequality for other people. You're no longer just a "bigot" or just "prejudice" .. you're now simply just an "asshole"
We cannot decide how one lives but we can decide that we all should be together in the world. I have often heard the phrase "don't push your lifestyle onto mine and make me accept it" .. At this point, no one is pushing anything on anyone.. I think the only thing that is being pushed is the acceptance that everyone was created equal. For all the true patriots reading this article, may I remind you of the phrase "Dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal under the eyes of God" .. Or did we decide to cut that one out when it comes to sexual orientation or any other issue that "pushes the envelope"
I have also been thinking about us. Humans. We want freedom of religion (just as long as it's in our terms), we want marriage and love (as long as it's in our terms of "norm"), we want and dream of our own family (as long as we can say who can and can't marry to fulfill that dream) and we also want to say that America is the greatest country in the world. If you look at all these things, the biggest thing lacking with equality in America is our willingness to open up and accept something that is different than what we know to be our "normal" ..
Here's my point: more than ever we need to love. We need to love each other because without that, we have nothing. Whether you want to say you can't love another because your religion says you can't, I say out of all religions, none of them teach hate. Hate is something that is taught to you.
“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” - Nelson Mandela
-G