Enough with the gay-bashing already. Yep, I called it gay-bashing. You can put whatever saintly, charismatic, pro-hetero-marriage protection and save the children kind of twist to it you want, but in the end, I’m gay, you don’t like it, and you are going to be as vocal as you possibly can be about it.

Fine. I’m okay with that. I TOTALLY get it. You don’t like me. Not everyone does. I want them to, but I’m a realist, it’s not going to happen.

That’s okay. Do whatever you want, I just don’t want to see it. I don’t want to have to deal with it, or accept it. Believe whatever you want, but I don’t believe in your gay-bashyness and I certainly don’t want my family exposed to it. I don’t want them to see the sin that you commit time and time again when you tell us how horrible we are and spread lies about us.

You see what I’m doing here, right? Using your own words and tactics against you - feels great, doesn’t it? Well practice what you preach. I really don’t care how you feel about me or my sexuality. I don’t care about your family values, your bible passages or your definitions of marriage.

Why, you ask? Because I have my own family to worry about. I have my own beliefs to keep in check and guard against infringement. I have my own family values and bible passages, and yes, I even have my own definition of marriage.

So there.

Now you might be asking yourself, if you have YOUR values, and I have MY values, if you have YOUR morality, and I have MY morality, which one of us is right? The answer is BOTH of us.

You see, we live in a nation where we are protected from screwing up each others lives. That’s the whole point of separation of church and state. It means that you get to go over there and practice what you practice, I get to go over here and practice what I practice, and and as long as you don’t tell ME what to do, and I don’t tell YOU what to do, life is peachy and we leave each other alone.

It’s schoolyard politics. You don’t like me, I don’t like you, so we’re probably not going to hang out on the jungle gym together. I’m fine with that. Just don’t yell across the sandbox and tell me to stop being me simply because you don’t agree with it. Those people are called bullies.

I say we just call a truce. Countries do them all the time. They don’t have to agree with each other to call a truce, they just have to agree that continuing to fight against each other is not going to get anyone anywhere except more hurt and more upset. So call a truce. Let us get married in the way we want to get married - in our own church, with our own beliefs, just like we let you do in YOUR own church. And really, over half the nation believes gay marriage is okay. It’s going to happen, so stop with the stomping of your feet and whining and dragging it out already.

Look - I won’t even ASK you to change your beliefs for me. Your church can keep believing that I’m wrong and that’s okay. I’ll be happy enough living my own life separate from you and your life. All I ask is that you stop interfering with my legal protections and stop telling me what I’m allowed to call a “family.” I’ve gotten through 31 years on this earth and I’m a big enough man to know a family when I see one, and determines enough to choose the kind of family I want to spend the rest of my life with, and I don’t need you sticking your nose in it.