Who Cares Whether Anyone Is Straight or Gay?

This headline recently caught my eye.

Apparently, quite a few people do care—including a surprising number of folks who occupy some of the highest offices in the land, where one might reasonably expect attention to be focused on, say, actual societal problems.

In this refreshingly blunt opinion piece, author Mike Weisser argues that our collective obsession with other people's sexual orientation, gender identity, and race is fundamentally absurd. Drawing on personal experience, from witnessing school integration in 1954 to encountering his first gender-neutral bathroom decades later, Weisser notes that these anxieties have never made much rational sense.

Since 2015, more than 800,000 same-sex couples have married in the United States and are raising hundreds of thousands of children—successfully, it bears noting. The long-promised apocalypse has failed to materialize. Weisser usefully compares today's gender panic to 1970s fears about racial integration in public spaces, suggesting both stem from the same baseless prejudice.

Why People Get Their Knickers in a Twist

We already know the usual drivers behind anxiety about gender identity and sexual orientation. They tend to cluster around a few familiar themes:

• Fear of change and collapsing social order 

  When categories like gender roles shift, some people panic that civilization itself is crumbling. Spoiler alert: it isn't.

• Religious teachings and cultural traditions  

  Many faith communities carry inherited beliefs about sexuality, and questioning these can feel like heresy. Though one does wonder whether the divine is truly preoccupied with bathroom signage.

• Tribal politics and manufactured crises 

  As Weisser observes, fear is politically profitable. Amplifying cultural “threats” is a reliable way to build voting blocs, even when the threat is entirely fictional.

• Discomfort with anyone different

  Humans excel at in-group/out-group thinking. What's unfamiliar triggers alarm bells, even when the actual threat level is "zero."

Why We DON'T Need to Panic (The Lunacy Explained)

Weisser’s core argument is simple: this fixation is spectacularly irrational.

1. It affects literally nothing about your life 

   Who someone else loves has precisely zero impact on your daily existence.

2. History proves these fears ridiculous 

   Interracial marriage was once said to “destroy society.” It didn’t. This won’t either.

3. Real-world evidence shows no harm

   Hundreds of thousands of same-sex families are thriving. Children are fine. The world keeps spinning.

4. It's a manufactured political distraction 

   Not a legitimate concern, just effective theatre. Divide, distract, repeat.

The real lunacy? People expending enormous energy on something that genuinely doesn't matter while actual problems—poverty, climate change, crumbling infrastructure—go unaddressed. As Weisser bluntly and repeatedly asks: "Who gives a shit?"

Why This Mindset Undermines Thriving Communities

Here’s where it stops being merely ridiculous and becomes genuinely harmful.

Communities can only thrive when everyone can participate authentically. When we exclude or marginalize people based on sexual orientation or gender identity – or anything other identity marker - we:

• Squander human potential 

  Turns out, forcing talented people to hide or leave is bad for business, creativity, and community vitality. Shocking.

• Build fear-based cultures 

  Trust gives way to surveillance. Authenticity is replaced by performance. Nobody thrives under constant scrutiny.

• Fracture social cohesion 

  Nothing builds community like "us vs. them" tribalism. (That's sarcasm, if unclear.)

• Establish dangerous precedents

  When some groups are deemed unworthy of dignity, everyone else should pay attention. You might be next on the list.

• Kill authentic dialogue 

  People can't engage honestly when they're busy hiding or performing acceptable identities.

The Bottom Line

Thriving communities require exactly what The Human Dignity Project advocates: conditions where everyone can flourish authentically, participate democratically, and contribute their full selves without fear.

Revolutionary concept, we know. But someone's got to say it.