What Is Forgivable?

I was treated as though I cannot read, it was suggested that I support and condone pedophilia, and questions I asked a lawyer about a legal case which he cited while making a moral argument were used to support the assertion that I am somehow a monster for asking such questions.

I am disgusted with someone whose counsel I trusted.

I felt forced to share details of my personal history that have no business being publicized.

I feel stigmatized for asking questions.

So tonight my hope isn't just for political and social change. It's for personal change. I really believe that I would never have been spoken to the way I was tonight in person. I also know that the person who spoke to me that way did so because he felt like he was justified. Because he has a forum where little to no accountability occurs.

If I deny him access to me in future? Not much changes for him. He receives no punishment for being rude, willfully misleading and wildly inappropriate. Instead, I am left with no recourse and the genuine feeling that the only way his shameful treatment of me will be avenged in any way is if by some miracle, a stack of newspapers slaps him across the face tomorrow morning and he is forever stuck with inked scars reading "Pedophile?" across his forehead. I would not wish such a thing on him, as once we were friends, but there is a tiny portion of myself that wishes something would change inside him, so that he realizes there are some things in this life that are unforgivable. That some things, once done, can never be changed.

Be responsible for what you write. Hold yourself accountable. You have no idea how what you write can impact people who read it. And once it's out there, you can't take it back.