Sunday evening as I was preparing to take the trash to the curb, I spotted a friend’s Facebook post (an actual real-life friend, not just the social-media variety). She reposted a meme from Ahmad Kanu which read, “We’re living in a time where some people are proud of what they should be ashamed of.”

Ain’t that the truth.

About now there are people nodding their heads and saying things like, “Yeah, those women have just gotten too uppity nowadays,” and “Those people should just go back in the closet.”

Ahem. As an uppity woman and an LGBTQ+ ally, I’m not gonna make those people very happy, because what my friend and I took that meme to mean was that some people are proud, some exceedingly so, of being hateful and mean.

As another friend said, that’s the kind of stuff that would get you hit with a switch when we were kids.

Too many people have decided that what Jesus taught was just too woke. I mean, all that talk about loving your neighbor as yourself, loving your enemies, not being hypocritical … yeah, who did he think he was? How dare!

Too many have decided that they’re no longer going to hide their hatred of certain demographics (people of color, women, LGBTQ+ … basically anyone who isn’t straight, white, male and Christian, but only certain types of Christians, because some of them folks “just ain’t right” … heck, I heard enough of that in my church growing up when anyone brought up Catholics … or Methodists … or Seventh Day Adventists). Some of them say it’s because those demographics are throwing “their lifestyle” in their faces (said “lifestyle” being who they are with no apologies for their existence).

I think they mean they’re existing in plain view rather than having to hide away like back in the “good old days” some folks are apparently pining for. They finally have most of the same protections and rights others have had all along, and that they should have had much earlier (some might not want to admit that inherent natural rights aren’t necessarily “God-given,” as that would imply only Christians have rights … or maybe they would).

Just as a reminder, women have only had the vote in the U.S. for about 105 years. Until the 1970s, they couldn’t get a credit card in their own name, could get fired for getting pregnant, couldn’t take legal action against sexual harassment in the workplace, couldn’t easily get contraception, couldn’t serve on juries in most states (while some states allowed it, not all did, and the Supreme Court finally ruled in 1975 that it was constitutionally unacceptable to bar women from the equal opportunity of serving on juries), and many other things. It wasn’t until 2014 that the practice of gender rating in health insurance, which resulted in higher premiums for women, was barred, so it’s not like every barrier has been brought down.

Then there are the people who seem to think that you can “catch” homosexuality (and “groom” kids into homosexuality through Drag Queen Story Hour; please …), pointing to the fact that there are so many more people all along the sexual spectrum visible today. Hate to tell them, but they’ve always been around, but were unable to live openly in most places as themselves until fairly recently. If they were outed, they could lose their livelihoods, their families and sometimes even their lives. And cross-dressing/drag? C’mon, that’s been around for ages as well, most notably with William Shakespeare’s plays at the Globe (no women were allowed to act until the 1660s, so Juliet was a man, baby), and continued in the 20th century and beyond with people like Milton Berle, Bob Hope and Flip Wilson.

I’m still befuddled by the number of people who continue to look down on anyone whose skin isn’t white (uhhhh, if you think Jesus was white, you really don’t understand the area he was from). We’re all the same inside (unless we’re an alien species, such as Doctor Who, who has two hearts, and unfortunately is not real), yet some insist that someone who has darker skin, or maybe a foreign accent, or perhaps clothes (such as a dastar or burka) that mark them as members of one faith or another, is inherently inferior.

I’d say the inferior ones would be the ones who hold themselves out as superior to those who weren’t born into the same privilege. You don’t have to be rich to have privilege; in cultures such as ours, especially as coarsened as it’s become, just being white is privilege, though not always enough to get you what you want, especially if you’re an uppity woman who won’t be bullied.

When I was a kid, I’d hear adults telling all of us to not “act ugly.” That idea seems to have fallen by the wayside, with so many touting all the ways they make life more difficult for those not like them. Don’t agree with a writer? Troll them/dox them/lie about what they’ve said and written. (Don’t worry about being banned because you can always just create a new identity and come back.) Don’t like someone from a different party? Make up stories about them, the crazier the better, because truth doesn’t matter anymore. (Of course Michelle’s really a man! 🙄) Don’t think women, people of color, LGBTQ+, etc., deserve the same rights as you? Get elected to office and attempt to legislate your version of morality. (Ten Commandment monuments for everybody! No worries, though: If you’re “in the club” you don’t have to follow them.)

That’s all ugly, and certainly not in keeping with what Jesus taught, especially in my Church of Christ Sunday School classes with the preacher’s wife (Donna, you are greatly missed and loved; rest in peace. dear friend).

I don’t like that some people now, in calling out hate, resort to the same tactics, but sadly, I think we may have gotten past the point where doing the right thing simply because it’s the right thing is automatic. We should be better than that, but we’re tired and worn down and are reacting with anger instead of logic. I see us in a downward spiral of tit for tat, and it won’t end well.

I’m hoping that there will be those who’ll stand up and say, “This is wrong. We all deserve the same rights, we all must accept the responsibilities that come with those rights, and no one should make someone else’s life miserable just because they’re different.”

I know. Not gonna happen anytime soon. But a girl can hope.