Letter number 1: the anti-gay rights amendment

(This item was originally written elsewhere in 2018. The rights holder has given me permission to reuse it and modify it.)

Older self: 44 years old
Younger self: 18 years old

You think that leading the “gay lifestyle” is sinful. You believe the laws that forbid discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation “recognize” and therefore legitimize that lifestyle. One reason people support the anti-discrimination laws in the first place is that they are one step toward legitimizing that lifestyle. That’s your real objection to those laws, and that’s why you support state constitutional amendment, which I'll call amendment 200. That amendment would overturn those laws.

While I think you’re missing the point that these laws are more about guaranteeing access to things you take for granted than they are about legitimizing the “gay lifestyle” and while I think that these laws can theoretically protect straight people as well as gay people, your objection is still an honest one, honestly come by. You see through the “special rights” argument that most supporters of the amendment claim to believe. You don’t put it in quite these terms yet, but you essentially see this amendment as a power play, much pretense that it’s anything other than a battle between your values and theirs.

It won’t suffice to tell you that you’ll change your mind eventually. I realize that at 18, you’re not ready to make the same claims that I am at 44. If I were to insist on that, you might double down on your current position. You’ve already seen enough Twilight Zone episodes to know that you can’t go back in time and change the past (except for when you can, and then probably in some way you weren’t anticipating). Instead, I have some thoughts that start with where you are right now.

About this blog and commenting

 Hello!

Thanks for reading my blog. I plan to use this blog to write "letters" (blog posts) to my younger self. Sometimes, I'll let my younger self talk back.

For context, I can say I was born in the early 1970s in a United States mountain state. I now live in the Midwestern United States.

I haven't yet decided how to handle comments. In theory, I like the idea of hosting comments and replying to them when appropriate. In practice, the internet is going to be the internet and people are going to be people. So, feel free to try to comment and I hope to approve them when I can. However, I make no guarantees.