Let me start this column by dispelling the greatest myth about the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered community, which is that we are somehow different from the society at large. The fact of the matter is that the LGBT community is as diverse as our society as a whole. We don’t share a common culture, a common political ideology, a common religion and so forth.

The only thing we really have as a community is a common past and a common fate. This being said, it is an outrage that the supposedly freest nation on earth deprives a significant group of people within its borders the same rights and protections as everyone else in this society.

The question ultimately becomes whether or not we will continue to live on the fringes of society, making a living where we are allowed to, instead of where we are most qualified. For evidence of this, look up the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. The fundamental principle here is fairness.

It’s been close to 20 years since John Kerry sponsored legislation in the Senate to end discrimination based on sexual orientation, and it has yet to pass. The fact the Democrats didn’t do it when they controlled the government under Clinton gives many gay Republicans a fair criticism to make of Democrats. However, I haven’t seen any movement of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act under a Republican administration, either.

It also seems to me that equal protection under the law means that hate crimes legislation must be enacted to include sexual orientation and gender identity. If our society has arrived at the point where it says that there is a difference between murder based on an individual hatred and murder based on hatred of a group, then it is a blemish on our constitution to not include sexual orientation in that protected group.

The essence of a hate crime is that it is based upon an individual’s membership to a particular group and not toward the individual himself. It is based on an individual’s identity rather than his actions. If we enact hate crimes legislation in an effort to protect people from being attacked because of who they are, then I do not understand why political leaders exclude so many from those protections.

It’s ridiculous because, in my opinion, it is caused because of a religious moral standard that says it’s wrong. The issue isn’t people having faith, it’s with the fact that so many people can’t look beyond that moral point of their religion and see that, as Americans, it is our duty to respect the rights and freedoms of all people in America, regardless of who they are.

To look past our identity as political and social enemies and understand the one identity we should all be able to share, which is to be American. Maybe it’s time we remember that and take pride in that again — not so we can agree on everything but so we can agree on some things.

If we can’t agree to work together, despite our differences, then the culture war will eventually tear this country apart and our descendants will have only history books to know that there was ever such a nation as the United States of America.

It won’t take an “evil empire,” terrorism, or an “axis of evil” to defeat us because a house divided against itself cannot stand.