Help Me Understand: LGBT Discrimination

My fellow Christian Americans,

I understand there is biblical mandate against homosexuality.

What I don't understand is forcing people into desperate circumstances. What is the purpose of

--Reducing or removing a person's ability to earn a livelihood? or

--Denying health care to a child being raised by same-sex parents?¹ or

--Denying financial security to a long term couple when one of them dies? or

--Denying a member of such a long term couple from making medical decisions for the other person?

Is it an attempt to kill people through legislated marginalization? To force a hopelessness so deep some would consider suicide?

If so, do you believe you are greater than God, who has given life to all, including the people you loathe?

Is it an attempt to force people to live according The Law, despite many not being of the Faith? Let's not ignore the fact we don't even try to live according to The Law ourselves.² Are you holding others to a higher standard than you hold yourself?

Is it an attempt to try to change people? To use fear and misery to force others to behave as you want them to?

Help me understand.

Because here, in the United States, we don't live in a theocracy³. Our constitution expressly states that the government shall not establish a national religion. And while we may write or support laws which are biblically based, we cannot use government to force the Gospel or a "Christian lifestyle"⁴ on others. Mainly because

a) It ceases to become the Good News, instead morphing into Follow My Interpretation (Pharisee, anyone?), and most importantly,

b) That's not how the Gospel works. The Good News has never had to be forced upon or enforced among those who sincerely believe.

So why do some of you support, advocate for, and/or enforce of such discrimination?

Please. Help me understand.

1. Seriously. How many of you remember when you chose your parents? Then why punish the child for something over which they had no control?

2. Bacon, people. And ham. Some of us eat shrimp. Many of us would eat a bacon-wrapped shrimp appetizer in a heartbeat. All of which is contrary to The Law.

3. Nor do I want to live in a theocracy. Imagine all of the petty church arguments writ large. Imagine the group in power mandating how one praises, what one wears, what type of music is allowed. No thank you. It's hard for me to see man-made theocracy as anything other than authoritarianism attempting to disguise itself as religious purity.

4. That's right, I used quotes. Because when we say and think "Christian Lifestyle", we often go straight to one's behavior and ignore the heart. We sometimes get caught up in the appearance of propriety and spirituality, and condemn those who actually exhibit the heart of Christ. We forget that a Christian Lifestyle, a heart guided by Christ, is not always packaged as the smiling face you see in the church vestibule.

Help Me Understand: Transgender Bathroom Issues

So, in Charlotte, North Carolina, the city council passed an ordinance that, among other things, allows a transgender person to use the public restroom of the gender they identify with.

Aghast, the state legislature overrode this portion of the ordinance with a law forbidding municipalities to enact anti-LGBT discrimination laws. Some state legislators claimed Charlotte's ordinance would allow sexual predators to use the law as a means to assault their victims.

Never mind that men who've assaulted women in public restrooms never needed a guise before. If there is to be a ruse, the color of authority is much more effective, as a recent case has shown.

Just to be clear,

The North Carolina state legislature wants all biological males to use the men's restroom, and all biological females to use the women's restroom (that is, restrooms maintained by a municipality or government entity).

Even if some of those biological males dress and look like women, and some of those biological females dress and look like men.

The legislature wants a biological male who dresses and looks like a woman to go to the bathroom with men. A woman-looking person in the men's restroom. Making the men in the restroom uncomfortable.¹

The legislature also wants a biological female who dresses and looks like a man to go to the bathroom with women. A man-looking person in the women's restroom. Making the women in the restroom uncomfortable.²

Again, just to be clear,

Basically, the North Carolina Legislature wants everyone to be uncomfortable in a public restroom.

Why?

1. Not to mention possibly putting said woman in danger. You know how some men will aggressively try to hit on any woman within a 5 inch radius of where they are standing? Could you imagine? A publicly owned sport facility or concert arena? A lot of alcohol? A woman in the men's bathroom? It would be a wonder if said woman (biologically female or not) didn't get assaulted.