When I was a kid, I was told that Santa Claus was real. I was told that the Tooth Fairy placed money under my pillow after I lost a tooth, which is really creepy when you think about it. The Easter Bunny delivered candy to houses, or so they said. We were told that Pluto was a planet. We were told that the concept of Trickle Down Economics would work. As I got older, I learned that none of those things are true, except maybe the creepy nature of the Tooth Fairy story.

This entry is not being written to destroy the credibility your childhood myths. Growing up should have done that already. As we get older, we should learn and accept as fact that many of things that were taught to us as children are not true, or at the very least that concepts of them have changed.

One of the examples that I brought up earlier, Pluto was classified as a planet from the time that it was discovered in 1930 until it was reclassified in 2006. The reclassification doesn’t mean that Pluto doesn’t exist, it just means that new information made the reclassification necessary. That is what science does. It studies things and the concepts evolve over time.

Slavery was once a legal practice in the United States. Women were not given the right to vote in the United States. What changed? Ideas of right and wrong. Evolution of concepts.

An older gentleman was in my office the other day. He was using profanity and ethnic remarks. He asked me about specific information about something and after I gave him what he was looking for, I also let him know that he could access all of the same information online, without having to “drive 30 minutes” as he let me know that he had done. He said “I’m 80. I don’t have time for computers. I’m from a different time.” What he showed me is that he hasn’t evolved as time has passed him by.

A good friend of mine is an elected official in another state. She happens to be transgender. She was publicly misgendered by someone a few days ago. It’s made headlines. I made the mistake of reading some of the many comments about it on social media. I was enraged.
What does this story have to do with everything else that I’ve been talking about? It’s very simple. I didn’t know about LGBTQ people when I was a kid. It doesn’t mean that they didn’t exist, but I wasn’t told about them. I was told about “traditional” marriages and families. I was told that there were only two genders. What I was told was not true. I accept that. My beliefs changed based on evidence.

But, in regards to the story that I just mentioned, I was very angered by the comments that I read online. I shouldn’t have been, since they were exactly what I expected them to be. The typical closeminded garbage that comes from bigots. Yes, you are a bigot if you shame anyone in the LGBTQ community. Yes, you are a bigot if you make racial or ethnic slurs. Yes, you are a bigot. There is no room for debate. Your ideas need to evolve.

Just because you are taught something doesn’t make it true. Just because you believe something doesn’t make it true. Just because a book written thousands of years ago before anything resembling science and technology evolved mentioned something doesn’t make it true. Ideas, concepts, beliefs are supposed to evolve as facts are revealed.

I try to be as open minded as possible. When there is evidence that something I think is true may not be, I’ll change how I think about it. That’s what is supposed to happen.

If, in the year 2024, you still believe that the social norms of the 1800s are acceptable, you’re wrong. If you believe that racial, ethnic, sexist humor that was often said out loud without consequences is acceptable, you’re wrong. If you think that it’s unacceptable for someone is LGBTQ to not express themselves as they are, you’re wrong.

I understand that many people still believe in things that are wrong, untrue, misconstrued, or are just myths. My ideas are based on experience. My ideas are based on facts. My beliefs are constantly evolving. It’s time for us to stop believing lies. We need to accept facts. We need to stop believing in systems that don’t work. We need to stop believing in concepts that have been proven to be wrong. Evolve. Grow. Get past your pre-conceived ideas of the Universe.

I’m proud of how I’ve evolved over the years. I’m proud of how I see the world and the experiences that I’ve had that have helped me to form my views.