I’ve been feeling similar. Even on here I’ve seen people say “her views were abhorrent!” but it hasn’t exactly taken a deep dive to realise that isn’t entirely true.
Yes, her religious beliefs meant that she couldn’t stand in support of gay marriage or abortion, but by all accounts that didn’t stop her from having gay friends. So all the people calling her a disgusting bigot and a homophobe are just repeating what they’ve heard other people say
Edit: such as this clip
This is the attitude the world needs, and one I learned from my mum. My lovely mum was a born-again Christian. She never judged anyone. She was as kind and loving to my cousin and his husband, and to me and my girlfriend when I was in a
les relationship (and an atheist), as she was to anyone. I mean, moreso to me because I couldn't have done a thing to make her not love me, but also for anyone who has read the Bible as a vehicle for their own understanding of faith and the world, to judge is to put yourself next to god and the Bible isn't very fond of that.
My earliest memories of being around LGBT people is when we went on holiday when I was about 8 and stayed in a hotel run by a pair of drag queens (the old school sort). And she was delighted by them because she had an incredible sense of humour and really cared about taking people as they are. Such Christian bigotry! She was very motivated by her faith to be a good, decent and kind person. Never a shred of judgement and the warmest most generous person I ever knew. And despite what the press has said about Ann over the years, that is what shines through from her friends' accounts of her, and why her death has made me very sad.
I think it's very relevant to gender ideology, and modern democracy. The entire point of society is that we can coexist with diverging viewpoints. Do I think men are women just because they say they are? Not in the slightest. Does that mean I am going to be unpleasant, unkind or target someone because of the way they feel about themselves? No. I'm interested in people for who they are. I've been friends with countless gender non conforming people (and have been one myself), I just don't think anyone's identity - including my own - should be legilslated for over objective reality. That's the long and short of it. To reframe disagreement as hatred is so corrosive to society and to democracy, as we have seen. It's an attitude that is leading us to a very dangerous place.
