If your social media feed looks anything like mine lately, you're seeing lots of reactions to recent anti-gay legal measures passing in places like Indiana and Arkansas, and a particularly onerous bill being suggested in California.
It seems as if LGBT people have no choice but to feel persecuted and shut out.
Yet we have seven distinct choices in every circumstance of life.
Much of the commentary in social media around recent news is that of victim (Choice #1) and anger (Choice #2).
Victim feelings come out as fear, worry, anxiety and hopelessness, creating responses like "Why me?" and "I'm always being picked on!" Anger feelings come out as hate, disappointment, frustration and judgment, filling the dialogue with, "I hate those people!" and "What stupid jerks!" Both of these choices are completely appropriate for the circumstance.
LGBT people have experienced more than their share of feeling shut out, ridiculed, and demeaned.
Some have fought for dignity, while others have felt the need to keep themselves hidden to avoid persecution or physical danger.
It's no wonder that the recent legislature would trigger more of the same or similar responses to any previous feelings of persecution.
I'm disgusted by the hubris of those who sponsor this type of legislation.
I also know that victim consciousness gets me nowhere.
Scrolling through social media, I think of that scene from Steel Magnolias where Shelby tells her mom, "I never worry because I always know you're worried enough for both of us!" Fear and worry are the mental equivalent of spinning my wheels for no good reason.
Victim-consciousness is most likely to set in when you take something personally.
Once when Oprah Winfrey was upset by a story in a tabloid, she called in a panic to her friend, Maya Angelou.
Maya counseled her, "You're not in it.
People will try to peck to you death like a duck but you're not in it.
" You are more than someone else's assessment of you.
You are likely even more than your own assessment of yourself.
When you can accept that as Truth with a Capital T, you will not take someone else's slander toward you personally.
As more anti-gay legislation comes from other states and regions, the traditional reactions of victimhood and anger will become draining.
Chronic victim consciousness can lead to or exacerbate clinical depression.
Chronic anger, while mobilizing, can lead to burn-out and exhaustion.
Here are more options available to anyone.
Feel free to experience your own combination of feelings that work best for you, including victimization and anger.

• Choice #3 - Responsibility: It's not surprising this would eventually come along.
  I take it upon myself to assess where I am threatened and where I am not.
  I know that many businesses have aligned against this measure, and are using tools such as OpenForService.
  org to identify themselves as friendly to my patronage.
  Keeping to those options will at least reduce the likelihood of problematic encounters for me.
  
• Choice #4 - Compassion: I'm very sad for those who see LGBT people as a threat to their way of life.
  Even if their thinking about us isn't rational, it must be awful to feel so scared or threatened that they think passing such a law is the only way to fix this.
  I know from experience that it's exhausting to be so scared, and I hope they can find the peace that their religion is currently not providing.
  
• Choice #5 - Opportunity: Hooray! Instead of persecutors hiding under hoods or in dark shadows, they are coming out from under their rocks to let their actions be seen and scrutinized.
  It makes recognizing them SO much easier, thus making our allies easier to recognize too!
• Choice #6 - Reconciliation: Just as I am more than the misconceptions those people make of me, I know inherently that they are also more than these actions they are taking on the surface.
  If they hate me and I hate them back, then we are no different from each other.
  
• Choice #7 would be pure and detached Observation.
  We could say all things in the material world, including winning and losing, are illusory.
  Ultimately this is true, yet it is not entirely practical under the circumstances, just as it is not practical to say a rhino is simply "matter in the universe" while it's charging toward you.
  The place where Choice #7 is effective is planning how to respond, being open to all possibilities without judgment.
  

There's a time and place for everything.
Now is the time for opportunity and progress.
What role can you play?