When you say that you “believe in allowing other people to live out their respective journeys in life,” do you make no exceptions? Do you think that it’s a good idea to let anyone do anything that he or she sees fit? Liberals who are committed to tolerance often draw the line at actions that threaten great harm to others. After all, even liberals are committed to laws against murder, fraud, maiming, and the like, and most don’t worry that their endorsement of such laws reveals a morally objectionable intolerance of people who are committed to different life plans from their own.

Your question raises interesting questions about when and why tolerance is a good thing. I think that many people are committed to tolerance because they believe that tolerance is the only attitude that is respectful of other people. But if a respectful attitude toward others is what people who are tolerant are attempting to achieve through their tolerance, then their commitment to tolerance cannot be absolute (i.e., exceptionless). My respect for human beings might in some circumstances commit me to being intolerant of other people's actions-- namely, those harmful actions that themselves reveal a grossly disrespectful attitude toward other human beings.