Millennials now outnumber my own group, baby boomers; and that’s a good thing. Men and women my age tend to be less tolerant and have less compassion for their fellow Americans than our younger citizens.
In the link to an article in the Washington Post, you can read about the difficulty for members of the LGBT community inside the Muslim world facing intolerance and bigotry. Personally, I believe that the article should never have been published. The media must focus on the problems within our own nation. Thanks to puritanical radicalism, homosexuality remains a “sin” for 45 percent of the American people.
I am a big fan of quotations. I send out several a day to my family and friends. In a few short words, ideas and philosophies become dramatic. One of my all-time favorite is “we fear what we do not understand.” This is the root cause for homophobia. Contrary to Ben Carson, and many others in the Republican Party, being gay is not a ‘choice.’ Many Americans choose not to believe this fact, and therefore refuse to understand the sexuality of the LGBT community.
Loving someone is not a sin. Seeking equal rights under the law is not a sin. For the LGBT community great courage is often necessary to live their lives openly. Asked if America has accepted the LGBT community as part of their own, statistics offer one view, while those who are actually a part of the community see the situation differently.
Acceptance of homosexual men is reported at 55 percent; lesbians 58 percent. However, only 19 percent of LGBT adults believe that they are generally accepted. The majority continue to experience situations where they are subjected to slurs or jokes, or suffer rejection by a family member.
I often refer to the claim by our politicians that America is the ‘greatest country in the world.’ Sadly, that’s a lie. If quality of life makes a country great, and I believe this to be the only viable criteria, America ranks 14th. Quality of life is composed of adequate and affordable health care, the right to live freely and openly, religious freedom, and a government which guarantees those rights.
In the United States an entire political party is anti-gay, and supports a single religion, shunning all others. Our nation will never be ‘great’ as long as racism, bigotry, prejudice, and misogyny continue to exist.
Our nation is devolving. When the leader of one party is openly racist, and spews hatred incoherently every time he speaks, the worst of our nation is exposed.
The Constitution defines ‘American values,’ but far too many of our nation’s people fail to believe in our most sacred document.
Op-Ed
By James Turnage
The Truth With No Restrictions 