Ahhh Bigotry...

[vallentine]

On my way to work this morning a man got on my car with a bag and announced he worked for a christian homeless shelter - I've been on the train with him before and know his deal. He has food, usually fruit, and drinks with him. He says "you don't need to be homeless to be hungry" and asks if anyone on the train is hungry. He will give you food or drink if you ask for it. He also accepts donations on behalf of the shelter he works for. After his thing about food and donations he started talking about how being a Christian is about love. About how he's not going to go to Heaven based on his deeds "I was a crackhead. I would sell my grandma for a fix" but that he was going to go to Heaven because he'd accepted Jesus and now loved his fellow man. And although I'm an atheist I'm not going to get offended by someone turning their life around and doing good things for other human beings. I don't like being preached to but it was fairly innocuous and even a little bit amusing listening to him talk about being a crackhead. But just a few minutes after repeatedly talking about love being the key to being a Christian he started railing against homosexuals. "God didn't make Adam and STEVE. He made Adam and EVE. Men cannot marry other men. This is not how we're designed. Men cannot marry other men." This pissed me off a lot, as an atheist and as someone possessing a fair amount of knowledge of biology and the animal kingdom I believe that homosexuality is natural. I also believe in the separation of church and state and if your argument against gay marriage is couched in a belief that GOD doesn't want this then it's in the provence of your church and not the state. To make matters worse every time this man said "men cannot marry other men" or "god didn't design it that way" the woman sitting next to me said "That's right!" loudly and proudly. She was on the train with her young son. And I found myself hoping that that little boy is heterosexual because otherwise he will obviously be either shunned by his mother or have to be closeted. And from a  young age it's being drilled into his head that something natural - just as natural as being heterosexual - is wrong and disgraceful. I hope that regardless of his sexual orientation he grows up to realize his mother is a bigot and that the world is better without an irrational and baseless hatred of groups of people. One can only hope because he's not being brought up to love and tolerate and understand but to hate and discriminate. I was disgusted and had to change cars even though I was only a stop from my destination. A few other people fled the car as well.

I got off of the train wishing I called the man out on his hatred and bigotry. Even though I know it would have been pointless. Additionally he was physically imposing, aggressive and had just been talking about being a crackhead and a criminal. Not someone I'd want to face off against.

So I found myself angry at the loud, hatred filled "christian", the woman filling her child's head with bigotry and hatred and disgust and loathing of myself for not being stronger and vocally defending my position. I suppose my retreat from the car was a sort of declaration of disagreement but not enough of one.