At some point in our lives, we figure out how to deal with our differences. We go from fighting over the same toy on the playground to negotiating with our friends on where to go out to dinner. That’s life; it’s a lot of give and take and a lot of picking and choosing our battles. And when it comes to dealing with homophobia, the battle has already been won as the anti-gay crowd is becoming an increasingly small minority.

In recent years, there’s been a cultural shift in accepting homosexuality. There are now more people in the U.S. who support homosexuality than there are against it. According to a Gallup poll, only 38% of U.S. citizens considered same-sex relations morally acceptable in 2002. Today, that number has grown to 54%. There’s also much less protest from those who oppose, maybe because they are starting to realize that they have no real ground to stand on. There are, of course, the people who are too far stuck in their backwards ways to change now, but the majority of the population rightfully ignores their protests. It seems like only the most passionate homophobes dare to speak out against the inevitable equality of homosexuals, and recently College of DuPage had its own run-in with this sort of individual.

H.O.M.E., which stands for Heterosexuals Organized for a Moral Environment, is a Downers Grove-based organization that sent representatives to COD a few weeks ago. They set up a table with posters and flyers around the corner from the Student Life Office and attempted to “educate” students on the dangers of homosexuality.

So just how extreme is this group? Well, their website, home60515.com, compares homosexuality to exhibitionism and incest. They believe it is their duty to combat the evils of homosexuality, stating that “penalizing people for truly immoral and/or illegal activity is clearly not discrimination.  It’s simply the right thing to do.” In other words, they are a lost cause when it comes to the war on ignorance. They are the battle that isn’t worth fighting, because they will never win anyway.

We could go on about all the many reasons why H.O.M.E. and their so-called arguments are invalid. We could list all of the ways homosexuality has existed throughout history, or all of the reasons why rebutting homosexuality is textbook discrimination, but we won’t. And at this point in time, with how far the gay rights movement has come, we shouldn’t have to. Organizations such as H.O.M.E. will never make the waves they hope for because at the end of the day, they’ve already lost the battle.

Ten years ago, it wasn’t a big deal if someone didn’t support homosexuality. Their reasons ranged from religious views to “I just don’t get it”, and that was sadly a generally accepted stance to take. However, as progressive millennials grew up and replaced their more conservative parents in the decision-making, we as a society became increasingly convinced that homosexuality is not a choice, disease, or a condition to be frowned upon. Still, there will always be those who can’t accept what they can’t comprehend, or those who make bogus excuses against homosexuality to support their hate-filled lifestyle. The good news is that these people are becoming more and more irrelevant as time goes on.

We claim to be a country with liberty and justice for all, but some people don’t seem to understand that this includes those who are different from them. Today, we are closer than ever to reaching true equality, albeit still not nearly there, and 2015 marked the year when gay marriage became legal in all 50 states. Though we still have a long way to go when it comes to true equality for all people regardless of sexual orientation, it’s important to realize that if we keep up the momentum, we will reach it eventually. In the meantime, there are some people so painfully ignorant that there is no use in arguing with them, and homophobes fit that bill more than anyone else.