I am a 66-year-old gay man. I have always been gay, and although I was married for a few years when I was much younger, I was aware that I was a gay man. I knew that I was gay as far back as I can remember. I didn't know what it was or meant, but I knew that I was different from other boys, and I knew without a doubt, even before I was seven years old that I had better not talk about it. So, I became a very quiet person for fear of someone finding out. I didn't ask to be gay; I didn't choose to be gay. I am not gay because: I hate God. I wanted to rebel. I was molested into it. I saw something on TV or read a book. Saw a rainbow flag or watch a pride parade. My father was weak or absent. I was sexually confused, not masculine, or knowing gay people. I have never molested a child and would cheerfully use a dull rusty knife to cut the balls off any man who molested any of my nieces or nephews, or even your nieces and nephews. I don't have AIDS or VD. I am not trying to destroy the republic, or Western civilization, such as it is. For the entirety of my life, I have listened to conservative religious people call me a threat to everything good and holy. I have listened to them accuse me of wanting to molest children. (And for the record, people who are not primarily pedophiles are overwhelmingly heterosexual, but that’s another issue). I have listened to them call me a diseased pariah, a pervert, disgusting, immoral, confused, filthy, and an enemy Of God, faith, freedom, the family, marriage, children, national security, and Western civilization. I have heard them say that my very existence is enough to bring down the mightiest empires. I have heard them say that if I am serving my country, I am a threat to the country and the military. I have seen them initiate political campaigns to deny me the right to marry the man I love, to kick me out of the teaching profession, to put me in prison, to quarantine me so that normal people are not affected by my perversion and my multiple diseases, both of which are a figment of their filthy imaginations. I have listened to these good Christians rejoice in the death of a kind, good, wonderful gay man 40 years ago. I have listened to them proclaim that the disease that killed these men is the punishment from God. I can go on and on, but I think you get the point. What these people do is hide their hate, fear, ignorance, tribalism, hypocrisy, stupidity, bile, anger, lust for power over others, money hunger, and overweening arrogance behind something they call their “sincere religious belief” and “traditional morality,” and worst of all, they call it “God’s love”. They still overwhelmingly support the most immoral, worst, stupidest, and treasonous man ever to hold the office of president and call him God’s chosen. They have even compared him to the second coming of Jesus Christ: three times married, twice divorced, four times (at least) bankrupt con artist, self-proclaimed sexual assaulter, fornicator, and adulterer, who paid a prostitute A bunch of hush money because he fornicated with her while his third wife was pregnant with his fifth child. For the record, I don’t hate conservative Christians. Like a good Christian, I hate what they do, the harm they cause to the bay and trans kids, their subversion of our republic, and their desire to control everything and everyone. If you want respect for your beliefs, then maybe it’s time to start acting respectably.