Recently, I began my obsession with the old, but good, television series The West Wing. It’s about what it sounds like, working in the west wing of the White House where the President and his cabinet deal with domestic and foreign policies. In one of the episodes, a man whose son was murdered because he was gay questioned the President, asking, “I want to know what qualities necessary to being a parent this President feels my son lacked? I want to know from this President, who has served not one day in Vietnam - I had two tours in Vietnam. I want to know what qualities necessary to being a soldier this President feels my son lacked?”

Even though this show may be outdated, considering the tremendous strides this country has made in civil rights, the questions of the heartbroken father still ring true when we see the prejudice and hate inflicted on a gay individual. There may be the legalization of same-sex marriage, adoption, or presence in the military, but there is hatred that still stands.

Signs, news feeds, and posts on timelines are littered with protests and outcries filled with hate from those who do not support the strides that our nation has made for civil rights. Even though homosexuals have these rights, they still face opposition and prejudice. It is hard for me to understand how someone could look at the love between two people and say that their love is any less or unworthy. I don’t understand how someone can look at love and call it an abomination.

So for those who still feel that homosexuals lack certain qualities to have the rights to marry, for adoption, or anything else, then I would I have to say I agree. There are qualities that homosexuals lack.

For one, they lack the quality which would lead them to have a rigid interpretation of Christianity. For anyone who sends out hate in order to defend his or her Christian values, to me, it seems you are doing a poor job. One of the biggest points of Christianity is for someone to come as close as they can to acting like Jesus and setting an example for others to be like him. Regardless of if you believe being a homosexual is the ultimate sin, Psalms 103:10 clearly states, “He does not treat us as our sins deserves” so this hatred and disrespect to human life is wrong. God doesn’t love us any less or treat us worse because we have sinned. So if Christians really followed God in the way that this religion is meant to then they wouldn’t act and outcry with such hatred.

They also don’t have a rigid interpretation of The Bible. For those who quote Leviticus 18:22 to justify their hatred and belief that homosexuality is an abomination must also believe it is okay to sell their daughter as well. In Exodus 21:7 it allows that, “If a man sells his daughter as a servant, she is not to go free as males servants do.” Or that we are morally obligated to kill anyone who chooses to work on the sabbath because Exodus 35:2 states that, “the seventh day shall be your holy day, a day of sabbath rest to the Lord. Whoever does any work on it is to be put to death.”

These are just a couple of the numerous scriptures that many people don’t follow because society has progressed.

Another quality gays could lack is hatred and disgust for human life. It breaks my heart to see people on my news feed talking about homosexuals as if they are not worthy of being human. I fully believe that hatred is taught. No child is born immediately hating another human or race.

Homosexuals also lack the quality of seeing other humans as unequal. All human lives are equal. Gender, race, and now, sexual orientation, have all faced scrutiny from a society that tried to deny them their basic human rights to vote, marry, own land, etc. How could someone try to strip another person of basic rights due to their sexual orientation but not because of their race, religion, or gender? For the most part, in my generation it is unfathomable to us why African Americans or women were ever denied the right to vote. When I have children, it will be unfathomable in their generation as to why homosexuals were ever denied basic human rights.

It is possible for religion to coexist with the acceptance of humans. At its core religion is about acceptance and love. I am not writing this article to criticize all Christians, or any for that matter, because I’m one too. I grew up in a conservative Baptist church and I value all the good qualities of Christianity which taught me how to love and act in a way Jesus would favor.

This article is for all those who act in hatred and feel as if their religion entitles them to strip others of their rights. So to answer the question of the father from the West Wing, these are all of the qualities that your gay son lacks. I only hope that I can lack those qualities as well.