And accordingly, Liberty Equals Life.
Our will is what defines us as living. It’s what makes us critically different from dead inanimate objects, e.g. a rock has no will of it’s own. To the extent that you take away or restrict a person’s will and expression of self, you’re killing that person. I’ve been talking about slavery in very cold and hard terms, and if I communicated my views well, then you probably find it rather depressing. Well I don’t mean to be. Unfortunately, there’s just no delicate way to tell someone a hard truth like that. Fortunately, knowledge is power and you have to know the truth before you can deal with it.
The gay rights movement was onto something with the slogan “Silence Equals Death”. To be threatened with punishment for fully living your life as your innate will would have you live it is akin to being suffocated. Perhaps that sense of suffocation is simply more overt amongst gay and lesbian people by virtue of having a non-typical internal will more at odds with societal standards. In that sense, it can be seen as a gift, in the same way that sensitivity to pain was likely a beneficial mutation for some of the earliest creatures to evolve nervous systems for reacting to dangers in their environment. It’s why the coming out process is such a relief and so empowering. It’s like being alive and gulping in deep breaths after feeling suffocated.
