History will not forgive…
Any time you find yourself arguing that a specific group of people doesn’t merit equal civil rights and protections under the law in the United States, you are on the wrong side of history. No matter your justification, you (or your descendants) will one day live to regret your prejudices.

This is not a diplomatic opening, but for some of us the issues are pressing, and this is simply not the moment to dissemble. The U.S. Supreme Court has taken up the question of whether Title VII of the Civil Rights Act guarantees the same rights and protections to gay and transgender citizens of the United States as it does to everyone else. These protections include the right to not be fired for who they are or who they love. Whether they can be denied housing. Possibly (pending appeals), whether they can be refused medical care, simply based on questions of their sex. And make no mistake…these are absolutely questions of what’s on your birth certificate. If you are listed as female, and are in a romantic relationship with another female, you can legally be refused housing in over half the states in the US. If you are listed as male and are in a romantic relationship with a female, you can access standard legal protections. If your birth certificate identifies you as a sex which correlates with the gender you know yourself to be, you get included in the civil rights agreement. If it doesn’t…well, we’re looking at you, Supreme Court.
Your religion does not justify leaving some people out. We heard many of the same arguments with regard to civil rights for African Americans (see the absolutely stomach-turning manipulation of “Is Segregation Spiritual” by Dr. Bob Jones, Sr. in 1960 if you want a dose of that), and now most of us (please tell me it’s still most of us) agree that the Bible doesn’t say it’s OK for you to refuse to bake a cake for interracial couples. Again, if you are arguing that a group of citizens in the United States should get less than equal rights and protections because your God says so, you are wrong. You can absolutely refuse to let them into your house. You can even refuse to admit to your children that a same sex couple is married, or you can tell your child that a transgender woman is “actually a man”. You are free to be unkind, that’s protected by the First Amendment. But to argue that a gay couple doesn’t deserve an equal shot at renting an apartment just because they’re gay, or that it’s fine and reasonable for a transgender man to be fired from his job just because he came out as trans, puts you on the side of history with Dr. Bob Jones and his ilk. It might fly for now…but I promise you, there will come a day when you will be judged as bigoted.
If you’ve found yourself accepting that LGBTQ+ people perhaps don’t need civil rights protections enshrined in law, please take a minute and consider what other groups you might feel don’t “deserve” certain inalienable rights. What groups have ever had those rights denied throughout history, and why? Who is actually hurt by granting them the same protections most citizens take for granted?
The Supreme Court, in its initial hearings, indicated that it worried about the “massive social upheaval” that would result from including LGBTQ+ people under Title VII. Obviously, we can’t expect to tell the Supreme Court what to do. But, collectively, we can make sure that the spectre of “social upheaval” isn’t a factor in their decision regarding essential protections for this particular segment of the United States citizenry. Please take a moment to acknowledge, publicly, that you support legal protections for the LGBTQ+ community. Talk to other people about it. If you have the time and inclination, write a letter to your newspaper, blog about it, make a podcast or Youtube video…do whatever it’s in your nature to do to make it clear that as a population, we reject the idea that some people get more rights than others. I promise, when the history books are written, you will be on the winning side.