Love is love

By Selena Randall

This July, Steinbach hosted its first Pride Parade, a celebration of Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Trans-sexual, Two Spirit, and Queer sexual preferences, and a call for equality in all aspects of life. More than 3000 LGBTTQ people and their allies walked from the Jake-Epp Library along a short route lined by another 1000+ supporters, to hear speakers talk to a cheering crowd outside the Civic Offices. The call ‘Love is Love’ was the theme of the event, and despite some negative press, and some intolerant language from local politicians and bureaucrats before the event took place, it was well-supported; Steinbach showed that it does have tolerant, open-hearted people living here.

However, the LGBTTQ community does experience a lack of tolerance, just as those who make other alternative lifestyle choices do:

Remember when you met a vegetarian at a local community event who declined the farmer sausage for quinoa salad, and you laughed at their choice and told them a real man would eat meat. But the vegetarian knows that the environmental costs of growing that sausage are far greater than his quinoa salad, and his choice is his way of reducing his footprint on this planet.

Your neighbour cycles all winter, and you laughed as he struggled to get his bicycle across the snow-piles from the road to the kerb, whilst you dined with friends having driven two blocks and left your engine running, because that’s how we cope with winter in Manitoba. But your neighbour is concerned that one day we will not have gas to run our cars and we shouldn’t be wasting it. Plus he gets some exercise doing errands round town, and enjoys the challenge of getting around by pedal-power.

You tell your neighbour who lets the swallows make a nest under their porch year after year ‘they’ll mess up the paintwork on your car’. But your neighbour knows the swallows will feast on the mosquitoes and they can sit on their nearby deck bug-free, and they enjoy watching the adults feed their babies as they sit having their dinner.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting that the battle to live a greener lifestyle compares with the struggles the LGBTTQ community have, but the intolerance experienced comes from the same source.

We are wary of the unfamiliar.

We find all kind of reasons to say ‘I don’t agree with that’, ‘that’s not how we do things’, ‘that’ll never work’, or ‘why don’t you do it my way?

But just because you don’t agree, or do things differently, even if you have tradition behind you, that doesn’t mean a different perspective is wrong. Nor does it mean you shouldn’t listen or shouldn’t even try to understand. You are entitled to your views; that’s what our charter of rights and freedoms says, but by not listening to other people’s views; you devalue theirs. Your refusal to listen or participate in a conversation gives the message to others that you don’t believe they have a right to a different view, to be different, to do things differently, to even to love differently.