Beloved advice columnist "Dear Abby" received a letter this week from an anti-gay couple who have a pressing question: "Who is the true bigot here?"
The couple, penned as "Unhappy In Tampa," tell Abby that they recently relocated to Florida and seem to be having a bit of trouble navigating the ins and outs of their neighbors' social circle. According to the distressed couple, the neighborhood group also contains two gay couples, and the new husband and wife wrote they "did not include them when it was our turn to host because we do not approve of their lifestyle choices. Since then, we have been excluded from neighborhood gatherings, and someone even suggested that we are bigots!"
The shocked couple just can't seem to understand their neighbors' aversion to anti-gay exclusion -- to the point that they felt the need to seek the perspective of an advice columnist. Luckily, Abby seems to have a bit of a better head on her shoulders and helps to put this indignation in perspective.
After shutting down the "lifestyle choice" argument, Abby tells the couple that she "find[s] it interesting that you are unwilling to reciprocate the hospitality of people who welcomed you and opened their homes to you, and yet you complain because you are receiving similar treatment."
She then informs the perplexed couple that perhaps they chose the wrong place to live, but also that "if you interact only with people like yourselves, you will have missed a chance for growth, which is what you have been offered here. Please don't blow it."
The "Dear Abby" column can be read in full here.
This isn't the first time that an advice columnist offered the perfect response to a question from an anti-gay reader. Last November, columnist "Ask Amy" responded to a mother who was attempting to change her son's sexuality, telling the concerned parent that "If you cannot learn to accept him as he is, it might be safest for him to live elsewhere."
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