I've always been very liberal, my parents very conservative. (I do suspect, however, that my mom is a secret liberal. She holds a lot of liberal ideals, even if she doesn't discuss them around her country club friends.)

I grew up the only child to an upper middle-class family in Naples, Florida. I realized I was bisexual at age 13, faced a lot of drama with my parents from that.

As I grow older, (I'm 26 now,) I find myself being able to straddle the line of conservatism and liberalism better than I could at age 8, 10, 13, 15, 18, 21, etc. I'm certainly no conservative, but I can see where the right comes from now.

It sucks because, as I was explaining to my boyfriend, I feel that the liberal side of me has a childlike sense of optimism that I never thought would wane. "What do you mean? Everyone should be equal! It has to be this way! It's only fair," but guess what? life isn't fair and it's tough titties out here, which is why the conservative checks and balances need to be there to keep dreamers like me from taking over and making this place into a kindergarten classroom.

There are certain things I will never change my mind on, like my position against organized religion and my pro-choice opinions, and especially my opinions on equal rights for the LGBT community, but at some point we really need to ask ourselves if it's smart for us to be as open-hearted as we have been. Are we wrong for feeling so empathetic to the plight of others?

I'm open to new ideas, and I'm certainly not in the position to hate someone for their beliefs (I hate all superstitious beliefs equally but I respect everyone's rights :)

And PC culture, don't even get me started on that.

When I was a youngin, the rebellious left-wing punks were he ones with the most offensive Hingis to say! Why are my friends all fucking pussies now? They don't want to argue or hear other opinions!?

Sorry so long. I've never talked about this stuff before.