I remember when I first realized I liked girls. I was in second grade. My mom had a couple of friends who were lesbians and lived across the street from us. One of them had a daughter from a previous relationship. It was only natural that they ended up lumping us together since we were the same age. She and I became friends pretty fast. I would hang out with her all the time and would spend nights at her house. One night, I can remember it so clear; we were sitting on her couch watching some Disney movie. It was really late, probably 3 or 4 in the morning. I can remember her looking at me and saying she wanted to try something. She proceeded to ask if she could kiss me and I agreed. After our lip to lip contact I kind of freaked out. I started avoiding her and eventually we just stopped talking. I was so young I didn’t understand what was really going on. My grandmother used to take me to a church a couple towns away and I remembered them telling me it was wrong. I didn’t figure all this out until later on in life.

Now let me just tell you this right now: This is not an attack against church or Christians or any kind of religion. Now that that’s out of the way I can continue. Around seventh grade I decided to come out to my friends and family about my interest in the same sex. Let’s just say I was sort of alone… My mom flipped out as did my step dad. The people at my church weren’t too thrilled either. At first I cared immensely what they thought and told everyone it was a phase. Then this past August I stopped denying that I only like women and told everyone. Now I’m so open about it because it’s me and I’m proud to be me.

The thing I can’t stand about the whole homosexual thing is how different men and women are treated. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve run into or know that say something along the lines of “Well lesbians are okay but when I see two guys now that’s just unnatural!” Okay who are they to say what is right and what is wrong? They’re in love. Leave them be.

I’m constantly looked down on because of my sexuality. Sometimes I walk down the halls and hear some nasty comment about gays under someone’s breath. Even my principle looks at me with disgust and pity. Like dude? Seriously? And it’s even worse because of the closed minded religious community I live in. Again, not slamming religion. Some of my best friends are Christians. I just don’t understand why people need to insult people for who they are. I don’t understand why someone gets enjoyment out of mocking someone else because of how they are. And I find it ridiculous that people do this when someone else’s sexuality doesn’t even affect them.

I just hope the people who are against same sex relationships realize that just because they are doesn’t mean they’re going to change it. You can take away the right to be married. You can insult them. You can beat them down until they are black and blue and can no longer stand. But guess what? It won’t change the person on the inside. It won’t change how they live. It won’t change how they feel or how they love. It will just create conflict, pain, hurt, war, etc.

LOVE IS LOVE.