ignored him. I could not infringe upon his freedom of speech. His comments grew volatile as he began to believe that his ideas remained superior to his peers The last straw was when he targeted my friend asking how he could live with being something “against God.” Furious, I began to dream of what I would say to him.
The boy’s comments went against two of my cherished beliefs; that I would be able to keep the people I loved from harm, and that people identifying with LGBTQ are never sinning or wrong. I found myself drawing up an argument that would be collected and serve reason. It was later that day when I found myself asking him how he could believe a person was “wrong” for something they could not control when theoretically he was sinning by choice. After an hour of debating the ideology of the scripture, we were able to agree to two terms. The first being that he was entitled to his own beliefs but targeting others was not necessary and irresponsible. The second being able to get him to admit that same-sex marriage was something that did not directly affect him. Due to this, he was able to accept homosexual couples even though he still believed them to be sinning. While these victories almost seem shallow, I was proud that I was able to slightly open his eyes and stop him from harming others with his opinions and ideology. This experience reaffirmed my ideas and proved that by staying firm in beliefs would continue to make the world a more tolerable
place.