Anonymous asked: "There’s a difference between saying “I support the death penalty” or “I think we need less gun control” and saying “I think these people don’t deserve the same rights as everyone else because their abominations”. That goes from being a political issue to being personal..." -- What if someone who has wrongly lost a loved one due to the death penalty is in your class? Someone who lost a loved one because of less gun control? These issues affect everyone. Why not challenge them vs. not come in?
I thought about that as I was typing everything out, but still, it’s not the same. You can argue out gun control, or the death penalty. They’re not personal issues in the same way that gay marriage is, because that’s denying someone a basic human right based on who they are. If you don’t support gay marriage, it’s because you don’t believe gay people have equal rights. If you support the death penalty or less gun control, that has nothing to do with who someone is or discriminating against them.
I don’t know if you’ve ever had to deal with someone who is homophobic, but you realize pretty quickly that if someone is actively working against gay marriage, there is no point in arguing with them, because they’re never going to change their mind about you. It’s different, having to look someone in the face knowing they hate you and hate who you are, and have to just take it. It’s not a safe environment to be in, and I don’t want to be in it.
