Respect Our Differences

Our son's boyfriend is a Catholic Mexican.
The biggest obstacle in their relationship is that he is also vegan.

When the boyfriend came out as gay to his family, they were supportive.
Coming out as vegan was much tougher for his mom to understand and accept.
On the other hand, I often wonder how many religious homophobes eat shellfish.

One of the worse arguments I had with my husband who is my best friend was because I ordered sausage in a diner and all he saw were the three little pigs in  the classic movie *Babes in Toyland* being slaughtered for sausage links.  He became so grumpy and continued to be grumpy for a whole weekend!

When I was the moderator of an exercise email group, there were lots of battles over different eating choices which made the email group less focused on exercise.  The owner of VideoFitness forum wisely excluded diet talk.  It is one thing to make a choice about what a person decides to eat but trying to stop others from eating what they choose is just as unfair as pushing any other religious or political agenda.
Almost any difference can cause unnecessary division,  As strange as it sounds, I have felt bullied by members of VideoFitness because I have not purchased an expensive Bellicon bungee rebounder so visit that forum less often.   I bounce everyday and have for over 15 years but have seen others very new to bouncing treat me as am enemy because I have not jumped on the Bellicon band wagon.  Different Strokes for different folks.

Everyone should be able to pursue happiness and have equal rights.  Differences should be respected.  People who feel differently should not be dehumanized, bullied, or ostracized by zealots and mob mentality.   Most mob mentality is created by toxic people, people who cannot respect differences.

There are so many different issues that can divide people and even families.  It is disheartening to see so many people in the world letting differences cause separation and even violence.    Hopefully, 2016 will be a year when people will decide to respect differences instead of attack them.