Understand, I’m a pretty conflict-averse guy. I believe what I believe; I don’t often need feel the need to respond to others’ beliefs or their view of mine, at least in part because I find it unlikely their mind is going to change.

But I had to take somebody to school today.

I changed my Facebook avatar to a rainbow mosaic. That led someone to respond:

“Why do we need to make so much publicity for alternative lifestyles?”

For whatever reason, that got my goat. So I mansplained it to him:

“Because they are not ‘alternative’ lifestyles, but just the way many people live. Yet they are denigrated, bullied, etc. for it. Besides, why should anyone not celebrate who they are and what they enjoy?

I should also note that a rainbow doesn’t automatically mean ‘alternative lifestyles’; it’s about diversity and inclusion, whether that’s of ethnicity, skin color, heritage, orientation, or whatever. We are stronger because we are not all alike. And a lot less boring.

Finally, it’s personal. In just the three living generations of my immediate family, there are folks who are Caucasian, Black, Cherokee, Asian-American, native-born, immigrant, first-generation through 11th (or more)-generation American-born, straight, bi, gay, Christian, Jewish, atheist, male, female, whole- and half-siblings, monogamous, and polyamorous. And that’s before we get to friends, who expand the list of adjectives considerably.

So yes, a graphic representation of that diversity is just fine by me.”

His response was that the colors of the mosaic were not in chromatic order, so I think this conversation is pretty much over.