Thank you for writing this. I have felt the same way for quite a while. There used to be a time when I could have friendly (albeit lively) debates with my friends and family about any subject ranging from politics to religion to food. We rarely convinced each other to change our opinions, but at the end of the day we still thought highly of each other. Somehow that has all changed. I love the people in my life regardless of their opinions, even if I strongly disagree with them. Life is too short to let opinions come between friends.

I feel like people need to be reminded of the real definition of bigotry: "Extreme intolerance of any creed, belief, or opinion that differs from one's own." We should all ask ourselves if we are loving the people in our lives unconditionally, or if we are falling into the trap of bigotry.