Equality, Please

So today a friend of mine sent me this video and since I haven't written for this blog in a while, I thought I'd make a post about it. This video nearly brought me to tears because I could relate to it so much. I haven't had a lot of direct confrontations with homophobes in my life, but the ones I have had made me so angry and when the anger subsided, hurt. I remember the first time I ever had to come out to someone was in my Freshman year. At the time I was still getting to know myself, but I knew I was somewhere in the queer spectrum and I knew that people out there would hate me for it, because I had to put up with my dad telling me that homosexuals were evil ever since I asked him about his views in seventh grade. I was thirteen, and I had my father indirectly tell me that I was a bad person because I liked girls, and I unfortunately still do have to put up with it. And surprisingly, when I made a new friend in a science class, I was fearless about coming out to him, probably for good reason. He accepted me for who I was and it was great. Unfortunately, the stereotypical lug of a jock felt differently. He said that I was gross and a sinner and yadda yadda yadda. Fortunately, this was not my first run-in with bullying, so I knew how to handle the situation. He was bigger than me, and I couldn't be sure that I could hit him without being hit back because I was a "girl" so I chose to give him a good verbal lashing. I insulted his intelligence, his religion, his family, and the way that he chose to jump through societies' hoops of conformity all without getting in trouble with my teacher, somehow. I felt better afterwards, but I still felt shitty that someone again, thought I was a bad person because of my sexuality. 

It sucks to have people, whether they have known you all your life, or if you have just met them, tell you that you have committed a sin for being who you are. But we have to stand up with the weight of people's prejudices and the wounds from their careless words. Whether you are thirteen or nineteen, you have to be brave and go out everyday being who you are and hope that no one calls you names, or says you're wrong, or crazy, or goes further and tries to hurt you. And no one should have to go through that, because there is no meaning in it. It makes you stronger, but it also makes you bitter and if it weren't for their twisted morals, you wouldn't have to be strong against that kind of treatment. I look forward to the fast coming future where it's okay to be in the queer spectrum and the next generation is ready to right the next injustice and ready to make another set of second class citizens feel welcome and appreciated and give them rights. I look forward to the day I can be recognized as a male without having to go through years of therapy to prove who I am and when sexual reassignment surgery is covered by every insurance policy under the sun. And when I can get married to a woman, and when people won't make it a hassle for same sex couples to adopt. I look forward to a day when we are "normal" and when "queer" and "cis-gendered" alike stop being words each side uses to hurt each other. Because being queer isn't bad and neither is being cis-gendered, it's just who we all are.