::I'm not gay but I have a bunch of friends that are. Here's to them::

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 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 one of the lucky ones, I guess. I survived the attack that left me in a coma for three weeks, and in another year I will probably be able to walk again.

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 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 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 man who died when the paramedics 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 the person who has to hide what this world needs most, love.

I am the person who is afraid of telling his loving Christian parents he loves another male.

I am the child who left school early after being beat up daily because I like boys.

I am the transvestite who gets called terrible names just because I like being a woman.

We are the lesbian couple who can’t go to church anymore because of the harassment.

I am the man who was kicked out of the army for kissing another soldier.

I am the teenager who killed myself because I couldn’t take being hated for being me.

I am the homeless man who can’t get a job because I’m a transsexual.

I am the woman who was revered as a goddess in her homeland and now can’t leave her home without being insulted.

I am the father who lost custody of his son because I live with another man.

I am the girl who can’t be herself because she knows people will shun her and push her away.

I am the therapist who watched a patient die slowly for being gay and not confiding in anyone.

I am the mother who kicked her daughter out for getting a sex-change.

I am the person who had the power to help my gay friend but decided not to and had to watch him die from the pain.

I am the preacher who loves a man but says the homosexuality is wrong or I’ll be fired.

I am the policeman who had to solve a case where two men were murdered for being in love.

Repost this if you believe homophobia is wrong.