Is tolerance a positive or negative value?

Religious tolerance, sexual orientation, marriage equality, racial makeup, ethnic background, male versus female, conservative versus liberal, South versus North, rural versus urban… I could go on and on listing ways people divide themselves. Some seem to actively encourage these divisions, while others busy themselves tearing them down. Who do you think has the higher moral ground?

Lest someone go there, I am not talking here about anything goes versus reasonable limits. No reasonable person should tolerate behavior that damages others needlessly. Being a tolerant person does not mean condoning child abuse, rape, murder, theft, etc. Claiming you must oppose all diversity outside your own group or you embrace every behavior no matter how evil is an obvious false dichotomy set up to excuse intolerant behavior. What we are talking about here is tolerance of things that are not crimes and have no victims.