The question of Freedom and Tolerance when it comes to Sex

I obviously received some comments on my diary entries of the past days and of course, some people did not agree. That is nothing new and nothing unusual or wrong. We all have different opinions and I just voice mine, too. You are free to speak against it and I am free to just accept that you are against it but keep my opinion nevertheless. This is what I would like to write about today: the freedom of people to not only say what they want but also do what they want – as long as it does not harm others.

Yes, we all have the freedom to do whatever we like. I would add: ‘as long as it is legal and does not harm anyone’. Some people don’t even regard these points while others add ‘as long as it is accepted by society’, ‘as long as it is in accordance with my religion’ or similar restrictions. The reality is however that while the law of a country limits us, we cannot limit others by our own moral standards.

If you believe that one-night-stands are wrong, you don’t need to have them. If you think that having an ‘open relationship’, in which everybody can have sex with others, too, is immoral, you don’t need to live in such a relationship. There are people who believe homosexuality is morally wrong and there are people who think it is wrong for women to work at all. If you are one of them, you are free to think and believe this and you don’t need to be gay and you don’t need to work or marry a woman who has the wish to work.

You cannot however limit other people’s freedom by telling them of your ideas of morality and what is right or wrong. While they will let you live the way that you live, you have to let them live their lives however they want to! You have absolutely no authority to interfere there and if you accept that, we all can live in bigger peace!

In my opinion, when two people meet, get along well and decide to have sex, it should be fully fine for everybody, as long as they don’t have a partner whom they are thus cheating on! If they decide one week later or even on the next day that they want to have sex with a fully different person, it is their private matter – as long as they stay safe, wear a condom and don’t spread any diseases!

If you don’t agree, that is fully fine. Keep it to yourself, don’t do anything yourself what you cannot do with clear conscience but also understand that other people have a fully clear conscience with doing all of this – and that you actually don’t take any harm from this! So why are you opposing it?

Of course everybody has a right to say what he wants, too. This is why you do have the right to say that you would not ever sleep with more than two people in a year or whatever your standard is. You need to take care however that your actions and also your words don’t harm those who believe differently. Voice your opinion while knowing that others have a right to disagree. Don’t be abusive, don’t get nasty.

That is called tolerance and if you live in a democracy, if you believe in your freedom to do what you like and to keep your own morals, if you believe in freedom of speech, then you need tolerance and have to accept people who think different than you!