Some people ought to be educated in the art of minding their own business, living and letting live. Unfortunately, there are those who feel in the right to offer uncalled-for advice to others, thinking they know what is best when, in fact, they are only projecting their own biased, prejudiced worldview instead of making any attempt to understand the other person and their complex human self.
Something that has been aptly represented by this TikTok video where a religious man takes it upon himself to leave a college girl a voicemail telling her how he perceives she should be living her life: By staying away from anything to do with the gays. Apparently, this pastor deems that attending classes that discuss LGBTQ+ topics is an invitation for the devil to pounce on her “like a Roman lion.”
The TikTok user, @coleyismyname, has already gone through hell by being forced to attend conversion therapy. Studies have shown that such an outdated, unscientific form of intervention can only be detrimental to one’s mental health. The American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry has asserted that conversion therapy practices “lack scientific credibility and clinical utility.” In recent years, many states have passed laws limiting its use, but there is still a long way to go before conversion therapy is abandoned on a national level.
To have to undergo such a harmful form of what is misleadingly dubbed as “therapy” can already be enough trauma for a lifetime. But even with that experience behind her, there are still those who feel they have the right to overstep and tell Coley how she should be living her life.
If there were an actual Roman lion, it would be Coley’s sidekick
The excerpt from the pastor’s voicemail begins with him praising Coley for being a bright and gifted girl. But these compliments are undermined by what he says next. He proceeds to tell Coley that she needs to “think with spiritual eyes, and hear with spiritual ears,” whatever it may mean.
One netizen posed the legitimate question, “What other kinds of eyes can I think with if I don’t wanna think with spiritual eyes?”
Thankfully, instead of being affected by the unwanted piece of advice, Coley decided to treat the situation with the levity and humor it deserves. We have had enough of men who feel entitled to tell young women what’s best for them and how they should live their lives.
“”You will become something.” Yes. I became happy,” read another comment.
Hopefully, after everything she has gone through, this is water on a duck’s back for Coley. It is clear that she has gathered a supportive community who isn’t there to impose on her what they perceive as the virtuous path but are instead more than happy to watch her freely express the person she wants to be without extraneous constraints.