My Letter to a Bigot

Dear Bigot,

Hello.

I am a young man in his mid-twenties who questions his sexuality. On this day of June 26, 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States of America finally ruled in favor of my right to marry either the man or woman of my dreams. It was a long and arduous battle, but we have finally earned our right to express our love as heterosexuals have for the longest time.

To be honest with you, I have kept quiet for far too long as this so-called "debate" played out. Throughout most of this whole debacle that I feel needlessly divided our nation, my tongue had been completely stilled. Well, no more of that; it's finally time that I said my piece.

Please allow me to ask one little question for you. It's a simple question and I'm hoping for a simple answer. My question is this: Why did this ever matter to you? Why did it ever mattered to you what two individuals with the ability to think, learn, and act of their own accord did with their bodies? How does it affect you?

You claim that it's a choice. Well, you are wrong because this is a unique set of genes that I have been blessed with since my conception. You know what, though, I am willing to play with the idea that it's a choice. Again, why does it matter to you? In the end it is wholly none of your business because this my own personal decision that I made for myself and myself alone.

Here's another question for you. What if somebody came up and told you that your lifestyle was just as alternative and unnatural as you deem theirs? It wouldn't feel good, would it?

For years your kind have made so many excuses as to how my being with the possible man that I love would bring about the end of the world. You people have gone so far to control us when you are not outright systematically trying to obliterate us through suicide. Well, guess what, I'm here to take a stand.

I won't let you.

I will not let you control me, verbally, physically, or otherwise.

You don't have the right to.

You never had and you never will.

And I don't care who you are.

Do you think that just because you go to church and pray, that makes you a good person? No, it doesn't, and contrary to popular belief, nobody cares about how much you love your "God" or your own twisted vision of him. What people care about is how much you love his children, and apparently you don't seem to have enough of it.

To tell you the truth, before I personally became an agnostic, I was raised a southern Catholic. However, I was taught radically different things compared to the promises of eternal hellfire that you were brainwashed with. I was instead taught that you should love everyone the same way you would want be loved in return and that everyone deserved a second chance. It's something that you should try sometime.

I was also taught another valuable lesson in life, and that is to each his or her own. Everybody on this planet has their own unique destiny to forge. A wise person once that man is a creating animal and that his ability to create is more important than any established rule written or unwritten.

How does it feel, I ask you?

How does it feel to know that your personal beliefs do not trump my right to the pursuit of happiness?

I know what you are about to saying to say next. This is the part where you play the victim. This is the part where project the blame onto me for your intolerance. This is the part where you shout from the rooftops that you are being bullied and that you have the right to your opinion and that you have freedom of speech. Yeah, I'm not buying it.

First, it's entirely your fault that you get the reaction for sticking your nose into business that is not yours. You frankly deserve to be harassed for trying to force me into your little box, and I'll talk more about that later. Second and third, no, you don't. You do not have the right to say whatever who want about me for who I am because I am human being with thoughts and feelings. It doesn't matter what you believe or what you say, because I am not listening.

Facts and reality don't care about your opinion. We exist and we have been getting together long before your religion came along and started mucking things up. Your approval was never a requirement. I don't have to have an open mind and there were no sides to this battle. You either believe that I am a human being who is entitled to the same rights and privileges as everyone else, or you don't.

Free speech never had anything to do with it.

Here is where you continually dig in your heels. You are probably going to tell me that I am just as bigoted for calling a spade a spade. Well, let me fill you in on a little secret: People have rights and ideas, opinions, and beliefs do not. Contrary to popular belief, I am not required to mindlessly bow down to your made-up ideology. I will not conform to your system that people should act in a certain manner.

And that's what you want, conformity.

Here is where you attempt to say something along the lines of "Well, what about us?" "What about our achievements?" What achievements? Sure, tell me about all that you have sacrificed and all that you hoped to earn in the name of equality. Nothing?

Well then, you can stop insulting me because you know absolutely nothing about give and take. You know jack squat about what we have had to sacrifice to get where we are now. We have sacrificed health, wealth, and safety. Most of all though, we have sacrificed our loved ones, our friends, our families.

We have sacrificed whole worlds, you haven't.

Listen, I'm giving you a choice to make. You can either keep on digging in your heels and keep on saying that you are right and that I am wrong, or you can start thinking and living for yourself. It's really not that difficult, but if you want to gain something in life you have to willing to risk losing something. I don't really want to, but I'm trying to give you the benefit of the doubt.

If you want to think of the children, think of all those who you condemned to hopelessness. Think of all those that were either massacred openly or forced into suicide all for the crime of nonconformity. We will be sure to name the coming generation after them, but the choice is yours.

With all of that said, I bid you good day.