Sean Reiser

OK, I suspect this may cause some problems for me in the future, but I really don't care, I've been carrying this post inside of me for a while and I'm going to let it out. Through a series of retweets I would up staring at the twitter feed of someone who seems to be homophobic and angry. I engaged him earlier today with the following tweet:

I know I'm going to kick myself later for asking this. @REDACTED if a person isn't sleeping with you, why do you care who they sleep with?

Note I've redacted his handle because he doesn't deserve the traffic.

For some reason I'm having more and more issues other other folk's intolerance and I suspect that this blog is going to have the bare some of the blunt of my feelings over the next few weeks as I work them out. That's why I've fed the troll on twitter and why I'm writing this post.

In all honesty, I almost never think of someone's sexuality. A bunch of years back I was on a date when the topic of the sexuality of a mutual acquaintance came up. My date was surprised that I didn't know that acquaintance was gay and I responded that I never paid attention to someone's sexuality unless I was interested in them (of course I followed up by asking about my date's sexuality with a wink).

A few years later I was away with some friends in LA and we wound up in West Hollywood for dinner at a rather good yet simple Italian Restaurant. It happened to be on the same block as a leather bar which sorta spilled out into the street. On out way back to the car, one of my friends knowing I was the only straight guy in our party, apologized to me "Sean I didn't remember that the bar was so wild, sorry". I responded, "John, as long their not sleeping with me, I don't give a sh!t who someone sleeps with". Of course there are exceptions to this line that get thrown in my face, but "John, as long their not sleeping with me, are consenting adults , and are not doing are physical nor emotional harm, to each other, I don't give a sh!t who someone sleeps with" doesn't roll off the tongue.

Recently, I was discussing this with a rather closed mined friend who asked me, "Sean, wouldn't you feel uncomfortable if a gay man hit on you?". I responded:

Gay men have hit on me and Yes, it's uncomfortable, but not the way you think. It's no 'ohh no, someone gay hit on me ick, I must not be hetero enough.'. It's 'how do I tell this brave person I'm not interested without hurting his feelings?'. I feel exactly the same way when a women hits on me who I'm not interested in. I know how brave it is to hit on someone, how much it can hurt to be turned down and really don't want to hurt this other person.

Someone may, "Sean, you're a Christian you should be hating the gays". I must read a different Bible then these folks. Jesus surrounded Himself with thieves, tax collectors and prostitutes and shunned the religious elite. He preached a philosophy of love, especially for those that you disagreed with. I believe if He were here today He would be in the Village here in NYC and not with the Westboro Baptist Church folks.

I'm just a rather flawed, dumb out of work technologist, who am I to judge anyone?