Love is Love
By Hodey Johns (Reprinted with permission)
There's been some controversy on how to quietly love the LGBTQ+ community so that the liberty movement doesn't alienate conservatives thinking about choosing liberty.
There is a glaring problem with this: Love is not quiet.
When you are being bullied in school, love throws an arm around you, it does not lean next to the lockers.
When you are being discriminated against at work, love speaks to defend you, it does not merely refrain from mocking.
When you are being told you have a mental disorder, love shows you the science that confirms your identity, it does not simply throw up a few likes on social media.
When you are told you can't be with the one you want to be with, love breaks the barriers of prejudice, it does not agree to disagree.
You are telling me that the love that creates the universe, crafts ever person uniquely, starts every family, builds every home, and unites every friendship is going to "quietly" stand with the LGBTQ+ community? No way.
The strongest feeling in the cosmos does not smile and wave. It hugs and high fives. It embraces and celebrates. It cherishes and encourages.
I used to be a conservative. I can tell you a thing or two about conservatives that love liberty. If you need to be careful around them at all, it's about staying out of their homes and businesses and letting them prosper. When I finally left the Republican Party, the very BEST thing was not having to explain how we spoke to these individuals who have been marginalized and aching since the dawn of history.
I finally got to say, "I love you. I will not apologize or feel guilty for that love. You are my friends. And I will never support a movement that doesn't put us shoulder to shoulder on the battlefield ever again."
I understand sending a message that sounds reasonable. Not everyone can handle the bold flavor of freedom and I am totally fine with making the taste more palatable. But if we tell tell the world that these people, these brothers and sisters of ours, are just alright, then we have failed to very core of our philosophy.
Loving every person, LGBTQ+ and more, is the entirety of our beliefs. Everything else is just policies on how we make this come to pass.
