June is pride month, and with that I'd like to spend some time paying homage to a group of individuals that are very near and dear to my heart: people who fall in the LGBTQ community.
For those that aren't familiar with the acronym, it is as follows:
This has historically been a highly debated topic among different groups of individuals and their belief systems. I come from the school of thought that people are born how they are born in terms of their gender, sexuality, etc., and that sometimes their gender and/or sexuality don't match up with what society views as "acceptable."
I'm not going to try to convince anyone of anything in this article in terms of their belief systems. We all are entitled to believe and feel what we believe and feel. That being said, we are all NOT entitled to berate and belittle people who are different from us, simply because they are different and/or we don't understand them on a core level.
I've spent a great deal of time working with adolescents who are struggling with these issues. Many of these individuals go home and aren't accepted by the very people who are supposed to love, care for, and nurture them most. As such, I've worked incredibly hard to provide a safe space for people struggling with these issues so they know I am here for them regardless of what anyone in the outside world says.
I'm writing this post to make a plea to people. You may not understand LGBTQ (the acronym), or LGBTQ (what it means to be lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning), or whether LGBTQ people are choosing to be the way they are (they aren't!), but you ALL understand respect. You all understand human decency. Some of the things that are said to & about LGBTQ individuals make me sick. What I'd like you to do is imagine saying the things you say about LGBTQ people to yourself.
Would you say them?
Or would you have enough respect and human decency to spare yourself words that could kill you?
Please spare unkind, demeaning, berating, derogatory words simply because you don't understand. Someone's life could literally depend on how you treat them, as shown in these statistics.
The bottom line is that LGBTQ individuals probably don't understand how people can be so close-minded to judge them without knowing them, but they still have enough respect for you and human decency to treat you like a human being.
Be kind, even if you don't understand.
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