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 prostitute working the streets because no one will hire a transsexual woman

I am the sister who holds her brother 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 in 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.

I am the man who fears I will never be able to be myself, to be free of this secret because I won't risk losing my family and friends

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 to avoid getting management called on me

I am the mother who is not even allowed to 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 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 always have to 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 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 boy tied to a fence, beaten to a bloody pulp, and left to die because two straight men wanted to "teach me a lesson"

[Personally,i don't care if someone is homophobic. Just as long as they keep it to themselves and do not force their beliefs on others. They can do whatever the bloody hell they want. Freedom of speech means bieng allowed to believe what you want. This includes homophobia as well as other beliefs. Freedom of speech does NOT however, mean that you are allowed to force said beliefs onto others who have beliefs different from your own......EVER!!!!!!!! This applies to both parties]