Oops. I got angry.

Last night, C's wife said something to me that really stuck. She said, you always think that this city is full of your peers. 

The discussion was over food and how I am always astonished that this city votes Chipotle as the best Mexican restaurant year after year.

The comment made me think that, yes, we assume everyone has the same sensibilities that we do. That people have the same moral compass and would choose the same path because we surround ourselves with those people. If we meet someone who does not meet those standards, we don't become friends with them. They aren't in our lives.

This morning I was driving to work and the local morning show had someone from The Westboro Baptist Church. I would link to their website, but  the title of the website is offensive and I refuse to link to such filth. Anyway, the whole reason that the morning show had them on was to bring awareness to the fact that people were out there like this. That people felt like this. It shook my entire existence. Because, like C's wife said, I do think the city, the country, the world is full of my peers. Yes, people may disagree with things like gay marriage, but they do it in a civilized way. I realize this is naive. It was a personal choice to remain that way. I don't want to know what these people think. After the pastor disconnected, one of the hosts had to leave the rooms she was so upset. I am sure they now regret that decision.

Yet, here I am, listening to this man, this abomination, this scum. And he is using the word "fag" exclusively to refer to homosexuals and saying that he wants to put them in a concentration camp in the dessert and kill them off like the Jews. He is saying hateful, horrible things and I feel the tears streaming down my face. I am not sad for me. I want to make all of this go away. I want to take away all of this pain for the people whose lives this really affects. I want to silence this man, throw him in a cell, and never let him see the light of day again. I want this to STOP. 

I know it's not that easy. I know that there is so much more to all of this than in my little bubble in my liberal city surrounded by a lot of people who don't feel this way. But, I am so sick of hatred being spewed. Of people saying and doing terrible things in the name of a God that they clearly don't understand. I am sick of watching friends of mine have secret relationships with people they love because their partner's family would never accept them coming out. I am sick of watching loving, happy couples struggle through legal technicalities over their own children. I am just fucking over it.

I posted today that if anyone in my life (and I believe some distant family members who I am friends with on Facebook do) want to put homosexuals in a concentration camp, to just cease being in my life. I don't want to know you. I don't want to hear your hate and your fucking irrational, and frankly terrible, arguments. I don't want to hear it. I don't want to know you. Because, while I cannot control what crazy fucking pastors say and do, I can control who is in my life. And if you are a racist or a bigot or in anyway don't accept and love your fellow man, then fuck off.