Loogootee is a small town. It’s pretty much white, pretty much Christian, and it’s pretty much intolerant of minorities. Want proof? Visit this website and click where it says discretion is advised. People have wondered why I’d want to leave such a quaint little community and move somewhere more diverse and more tolerant, and that image pretty much speaks for itself. WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH SOME PEOPLE? How long does it take to learn that just because someone’s skin color, religion, sexual orientation, gender, or ANYTHING is different that it doesn’t make a difference? We’re all still human, still on the same planet, and still have the same emotions, dreams, and desires. Oh, I forgot. People who can’t get past a person’s differences tend to be uneducated, ignorant, hateful, and narrow-minded. It drives me crazy that for as tolerant, open, loving, and welcoming as I have tried to become myself in order to overcome the smallness of my town, I still can’t get away from feeling intolerant of these racists. And the even crazier part? I feel bad that these people annoy me because I don’t want to hate anyone but they’re just asking for it! I feel bad for these people, I feel pity for them, and I feel disappointed in them, and yet despite the fact that I know and acknowledge that I am being somewhat hypocritical for disliking these types of people, stereotyping them as they have stereotyped others, I can’t help but know that I’m still better than them because I still care about them whereas they would never even try to care about me as a person or as part of a minority. Mind you, this is probably just a handful of people in Loogootee (I truly want to believe that), but a handful is far too many anywhere.

Why would I ever want to get away from such a small-minded town? Let’s see, I knew that there would be absolutely no freedom from religion as working at the Loogootee School System proved to me. Sometimes I think that the fact that I’m an Atheist is one of the reasons why I was so strongly encouraged to leave. I also knew there would be no tolerance of my sexual orientation. While it was hard enough to come out of the closet as an Atheist (which I waited to do until I was in college), coming out of the closet as a bisexual was the farthest thing on my mind while living there. It’s bad enough being hated for having a different philosophy, but it’s about a hundred times worse to have a different sexual orientation as proven time and time again when friends of mine came out of the closet (or tried to) in high school. One girl ended up dying in a car accident and all the friends who had scorned her because she came out as bi, flocked to her funeral to bemoan her fate. I couldn’t have felt more wrathful. One of my other friends came out as bi because he figured it’d be safer to do that than come out as gay as he truly was. The hate mail and derision he endured was sign enough for me to keep myself in the shadows as much as possible. People wondered why I wanted to get away so desperately and so quickly. Would you want to live in a town where you are despised, looked down upon, and possibly even threatened? I don’t even think I need to answer that.

So now we come to this. Our first bi-racial president, who is truly African American as his father is from Kenya. Sure, his name’s a little different from WASP Americans, but then again, there are lots of crazy names out there depending on what community you come from. But the man is still that: a man. A human being worthy of respect and dignity, not stereotyping and slurs. Just earlier today, I was talking to Ian about how I’ve been feeling so optimistic, so happy that a minority will be in the White House. After centuries of enduring some of the most wicked hardships imaginable at the hands of “real” Americans, black Americans have come a long way in winning their freedom, winning their rights, and winning a major place in the country they helped to build with their blood and tears. It made me really think that maybe one day, other minorities such as gays, women, and people with different religious and philosophical views would one day have all the same rights and freedoms as white Christian men. For once, I actually was excited about how far we as a nation had come, for how far freedom has come. And then Ian showed me that sign from Loogootee, my old hometown and it was like being hit by a truck. The least I can say is that maybe it’s more important that I know how far I have made it, and just separate myself even more from a town that clearly would never want the likes of me living permanently within its borders. I get asked a lot why I want so desperately to move to Bloomington, probably the most diverse city in all of Indiana. Why? Because I’ll feel safer there with African Americans, Africans, Latinos, Indians, Arabs, Asians, gays, Buddhists, Hindis, Atheists, and all the other minorities who flock there for solidarity and safety in numbers. Is it so wrong to want to live somewhere tolerant? Or should I work harder to make the place I live now more tolerant? I don’t know. What I do know is this: I am saddened by and disappointed in Loogootee in ways I can never completely express. Thanks a lot, Loogootee, for proving that despite hundreds of years of progess, lots of people are still intolerant idiots. Thanks for making an exciting historic moment just a little bit tarnished. I can only hope that maybe the good people of Loogootee, the kind, tolerant, and caring people, asked him to take the sign down.