Overlapping Realities

I believe that we all create our own individual realities. Everyone has their own set of perceptions, values, and absolute truths which become the lens through which we see the world, and the glove on the hand that interacts with it. These realities do interlap, and as individuals we can collectively agree on truths- such as "murder is bad thing." When we talk about murder, the evil of it is that one person's reality is infringing upon that of another's- and ultimately ending it.

The same model can be used to support the argument for the rights of those with alternative sexualities and gender identities. The individual creates their reality. They establish their sexual and gender identities (whether it is choice or is genetic is irrelevant). That identity then becomes woven in with all the other facets of that individual reality. Just as the murderer has no right to infringe upon the victims life, the individual does not- nor does society as a collective- have the right to infringe upon the realities of those with alternative lifestyles/realities.

The societal collective has the right to enforce norms that prevent and punish murder and theft because those events necessarily have a victim and a perpetrator. Someone is being negatively affected by those acts. This is not true of of alternative lifestyles/realities because NO ONE is being affected except those who consent to be affected. Homosexuality is not contagious. A straight child can no more be told to be gay than a gay child can be told to be straight.

Furthermore, a society that takes that step attempting to smother those alternative realities is just as much a perpetrator as a thief, a rapist, or a murderer. While that society may not be maiming or killing the biological life of the individual, it is killing that individual's identity/reality.