~rpgman

Taken from AAMLLover

If you have a freaking heart, read this.

Please, repost this in support of your friends and loved ones who are. Love is not defined by color, creed, sexual preference, or gender. Feel free to add your own story to the end.

I am the mother who is not allowed to even visit the children I bore, nursed, and raised. The court says I am an unfit mother because I now live with another woman.

I am the boy who never finished high school, because I got called a fag everyday

I am the girl kicked out of her home because I confided in my mother that I am a lesbian.

I am the one working the streets because nobody will hire a transsexual woman.

I am the sister who holds her gay brother tight through the painful, tear-filled nights.

We are the parents who buried our daughter long before her time.

I am the man who died alone in the hospital because they would not let my partner of twenty-seven years into the room.

I am the foster child who wakes up with nightmares of being taken away from the two fathers who are the only loving family I have ever had. I wish they could adopt me.

I am not one of the lucky ones. I killed myself just weeks before graduating high school. It was simply too much to bear.

We are the couple who had the realtor hang up on us when she found out we wanted to rent a one-bedroom for two men.

I am the person who never knows which bathroom I should use if I want to avoid getting the management called on me.

I am the domestic-violence survivor who found the support system grow suddenly cold and distant when they found out my abusive partner is also a woman.

I am the domestic-violence survivor who has no support system to turn to because I am male.

I am the father who has never hugged his son because I grew up afraid to show affection to other men.

I am the home-economics teacher who always wanted to teach gym until someone told me that only lesbians do that.

I am the woman who died when the EMTs stopped treating me as soon as they realized I was transsexual.

I am the person who feels guilty because I think I could be a much better person if I didn't have to always deal with society hating me.

I am the man who stopped attending church, not because I don't believe, but because they closed their doors to my kind.

I am a warrior for my country serving proud, but can't be my true self because gays aren't allowed in the military.

I am the person who has to hide what this world needs most, love.

I am the person ashamed to tell my own friends I'm a lesbian, because they constantly make fun of them.

I am the who isn't sure what she is. I am the who is rejected by her "best friends" because of a less-than-conventional crush.

I am what I am and I don't know who because I am always thinking about what other people will make of me. Who am I? Not boy not girl, just me and little people care about who you are and what you long for when you look like someone else obviously and your wishes and dreams seem easily to be guessed. Fail.

I am the boy tied to a fence, beaten to a bloody pulp and left to die because two straight men wanted to "teach me a lesson."

This is the boy, Matthew Shepard. On October 7, 1998 Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson lead him to a remote area east of Laramie where they demonstrated unimaginable acts of brutality . Matthew was tied to a split-rail fence where he was beaten and left to die in the cold of the night. Almost 18 hours later he was found by a cyclist who initially mistook him for a scarecrow. Matthew died on October 12 at 12:53 am at a hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado. MURDERED BECAUSE HE WAS GAY!!!

Two years ago, a group of teenagers at my old high school put on a play called the Laramie Project. The play was made a group of people that went to Laramie, Wyoming and interviewed Matthew Shepard's family, friends and neighbors about him and what happened. The play was put on to raise awareness of the savage event. Three shows were put on at my school. All three sold out. People were forced to stand at the back to try to get a good look at the stage or just to hear what they were saying. All three sent a powerful message to all who went. It sent a powerful message to me. I cried during and after the show, a lot of people did. I think that this play should be put on more often throughout the US it would really raise awareness that something in our country is seriously wrong.

Then something happened a few weeks ago at my old high school that opened my eyes wide to the deep homophobia in that community. A group of students were trying to have a Day of Silence for a middle schooler who had been killed for being gay, and protesters, other students, came to school wore shirts that said "Speak" on the front and said "Adam and Eve" on the back. They called the supporters of the Day of Silence names like "fag-lover" and the like. When the organizer of the Day of Silence complained to the administration about the protesters, who had driven several homosexuals to tears, they did absolutely nothing. I was shocked when I heard about this. This was a hate crime. The protesters claimed that they were trying to show straight-pride, but even if that were so, it was disrespectful to wear the shirts on that day. I have no reason to believe that this wasn't a hate-crime however. A discussion was set up on Facebook that became a full scale fight where people picked sides and launched ruthless attacks on others, even going as far as to say that those who died during the Holocaust didn't deserve honoring. The hate must stop. NOW! We need to raise awareness of events like this and attacks on gays like that of Matthew Sheppard. In America we are granted the right to live free. We live in a society that is built upon the principle that all people should be free to live in the pursuit of happiness. I think it's time we start walking the walk instead of just talking the talk.

As an end note, I apologize if anything I have said has offended anyone. I refuse to remain quiet about this any longer. Our laws should be extended to all people under the Constitution.

IF YOU BELIEVE THAT HOMOPHOBIA IS WRONG... REPOST THIS