Hatred never ceases by hatred; by love alone it is healed. This is the ancient and eternal law.
Buddha
After watching President Obama’s speech to HRC on Saturday and the National Equality March on Sunday this quote struck me as relevant. It is relevant not only for those who stand on the side of full equality for LGBT citizens as we encounter bigots who use religion and morality and plain old hatred to condemn, but it is also important to understand that we must not hate those who hate us. Prejudice, I have become convinced, is a mental illness, especially when it reaches the level of violence against and disgust with those who are different in any way. People who hold such hatred in their hearts are unhealthy, unhappy people, and returning those negative feelings to them is not going to make things better. Instead, we should show unconditional love. This is extremely challenging when confronted with people who tell you that you are going to hell or call you a pedophile, etc., but it is necessary in order to bring about positive change.
Cleveland has been selected as the site of the 2014 Gay Games, and the local LGBT community has received tremendous support from the city and state governments and from other agencies. On the day of the announcement that Cleveland was the winner, the rainbow flag was flying over City Hall along with the American flag, and it was an exciting and impressive sight. All the news channels covered the story and bragged about how our big small town of Cleveland beat out Boston and D.C. for the honour of having the international LGBT and allied communities in town to celebrate diversity, competition, and respect. The financial windfall of $60 million didn’t hurt! I hadn’t noticed much protest or complaint from locals at first, but more than a week later there was a letter to the editor published in the Plain Dealer from Larry Molnar, a plain old Joe from Cleveland. Larry’s letter was preceded by the headline “Sad that the 2014 Gay Games are coming to Cleveland“:
So the Gay Games are coming (“Cleveland is selected to be host of 2014 Gay Games,” Sept. 30). I find myself angry and disappointed that money seems to be the only reason people are happy.
I cannot help but be sad at the fact we are getting the Gay Games.
I am afraid of what this is saying about Cleveland. I think we have become too tolerant of diverse lifestyles.
Somehow I just cannot see people saying, “Gee, honey, let’s take our kids to the Gay Games.” More like, “I am afraid to take my children downtown because the Gay Games are going on.”
Larry Molnar
Cleveland
Wow. I mean, this man is actually afraid of the gays. He’s scared to be around them. He is upset about tolerance and diversity. I wonder what’s really going on with Larry. He has some shizz to work out.
But we must not hate poor Larry. That is easy. He sounds ignorant and bigoted, yes. He may have met a gay once, long ago, while he was getting fitted for a suit, and that gay may have “accidentally” brushed his hand against Larry’s business while measuring his inseam. Larry may have had confused feelings about that. Though not entirely an unpleasant experience, it went against everything Larry had ever been taught and he wasn’t sure how to cope. But this very confusion may have sparked Larry’s deep fear of gays, his need to speak out against them so that he may protect others from queer intrusion into their idyllic, morally flawless lives. Who knows why people are so ridiculous and hateful and scared of The Other?
What people like Larry need is to be loved back instead of hated. I am certainly not advocating that we not make fun of Larry because he is, in fact, asking for it. But people like him are everywhere and they are all convinced that they are right, that they are true Amurricans who built this country into what it is today, who love their guns, mothers, and apple pie, who love that Constitution and the Pledge of Allegiance. What was that one line that I always liked in the Pledge, something about liberty and justice for—who was that, again? I’m sure Larry knows the line I mean. Love you, Larry, you old fucker!
I’m excited to have been asked by 
