This is the question for the day, no? Having just read about the 'scandal' involving Whoopi Goldberg, please allow me to use that as a template here.
She had a point to make that, in her thinking, was legitimate. It happened to be in disagreement with many known teachings, but in no way was it said with malicious intent, dismissal or a sense of racial superiority. How many decades have ignorant white people echoed the sentiment that black crime is committed against blacks and if they don't want crime, they should just stop fighting with each other?
So she stated an opinion of the Jewish and the holocaust. It was her perspective, it was supported by her train of thinking & experience and it was said in an attempt to sort out a complex situation. If people live in fear of ridicule, chiding and legal repercussions, how free are any of us to ask questions? And without questions and the investigative process, how can we ever expect to recognize salient new information?
The way we learn is by taking detours, investigating other sides of other fences and tripping along the way. Questions seeking enlightenment aren't always cogent and incisive; sometimes they're obtuse, awkward, off-track and silly. But it's all done with the aim of educating others and thereby elevating the human race as a whole.
Personally speaking, there are a few boxes I check as "different." I'll entertain questions and inquiries all the live-long day if the intentions are authentic. I'm eager to teach, to share, to include. I want to learn about others, too, but the only way I know to do that is to talk openly and honestly with them.
Rather than watch in glee as Goldberg had to fall on her sword, maybe we should have been re-asking the same questions if we can't answer them, either.