I will never stop feeling astonished at this concept. The idea that religious liberty means freedom to impose one’s private beliefs, to legislate one’s personal faith, is both pernicious and contrary to everyone’s right to practice their own faith.

As a gay man and former HIV activist back before effective treatment was available, I first began to personally experience this perverse sort of “religious liberty.” I could never wrap my mind around the idea that churches were fighting to stop us from educating people about condoms to save their lives.

Seriously?

Conservative people of faith are already free to choose not to use condoms, to choose not to have abortions, to choose not to marry people of the same sex, to choose not to receive treatment for gender dysphoria.

What more do they want?

They want to force the rest of us to believe and live the way they do.

That’s unacceptable, and that’s just one reason why Barrett is unacceptable as a candidate for Supreme Court Justice.