To ALL STRAIGHT PEOPLE (or some who think they are straight)

I'm going to share to you a letter to all f*cking straight people who bullies and abuses the LGBT community...especially the HOMOPHOBICS..

Read this word by word so that all of you who are very much ignorant of what we had gone throught and have been going through before, during and even after we came out..even the closeted ones deserve some respect..

Dear Straight People

By: pinkpanther26

Written on August 1st, 2012

Hello to all of you. If you see me on the street, you'd mistake me for one of you. Hell, if you ever met me personally, you'd think I was one of you. Only a very few people know Im not.

Im gay...always have been and always will be.

Out and Proud you say. Well not exactly. And that's where you can help. All of you.

I need you, straight people to start minding your own business when it comes to what I or people like me do in our private time.

I need you to stop and ponder why a sane individual would choose a 'gay lifestyle' especially with all the hell you put us through.

I want you to know that every single gay man and lesbian woman put themselves though agonising torment repeatedly. We don't choose this as much as you'd like to believe otherwise. We may choose to come out as gay and lesbian but instead of being supported and admired for our bravery, and let me tell you it is a brave thing to be out in this world, we are instead threatened, abandoned, made fun of and abused.

Every single gay person, man or woman has begged God to take this away from them. They have spent months if not years, begging for this to not be true. Pleading with the universe to make this not true. To make them 'normal'. To make them straight.

Many of us still live in shame, in secrecy in disgust of ourselves. In torment and in self loathing.

I would like you to stop and put yourselves in our shoes.

How many of you have ever had to lie about something so fundamental to you as breathing.

How many of you have had to live in fear of anyone coming across your secret.

How many have lived in abject torture growing up, Sensing you are different from everyone of your sex. Recoiling in fear once you realise what you are. Who you are. And what it means to be gay in this harsh world.

How many have had their hearts broken and have lived through the heartbreak alone. In misery and anguish. Unable to talk about it lest your 'dirty secret' becomes public. Imagine having to undergo that everytime your suffer a broken relationship.

Imagine meeting the person of your dreams and not being able to pursue a relationship let alone being married to them.

Every gay and lesbian person has lost friends and family member because of this. I ask you to imagine what it is like to tell this secret to someone you trust and instead of getting the support you need, your friend turns their back on you. Ingraining in you that you are a worthless and no one in their right mind would want to associate with you.

I want you to understand the anguish it brings to sit through jokes about fags and dykes. Please don't use these words. People get hurt. Hearts are broken.

How you can help you ask.

Well for starters, be supportive.

If you are a parent, don't abandon your child. Emotinally or physically. I can only imagine what it feels like for a parent to have a child come out to them. I have experienced it. I saw what my parents went through. Know that your child is telling you because he has run out of all other options. He has hid it and squashed it and denied it and he cant do it anymore.The secret is killing him, literally. And he is looking to you for acceptance and love. If you cant accept it, tell him so. But tell him in a supportive, non judgemental way. Educate yourself. Talk to your child. Ask him questions. Show him your interested in what's happening to him. Don't trivialise the pain he has and will go through.

If you adult child has come out to you, tell them you love them. Imagine what it has done to their sense of self to have hid this from you for so long. Even if they don't live with you, don't emotionally abandon them. They have most probably lived an emotionally abandoned life for a long time already. Keep asking them questions. Ask them what it was like growing up. Ask them why they didn't tell you earlier. Be ready to hear heartfelt sorrow and deep anguish.

Apologise to them. It nice for a child to hear a parent say sorry for what they have been going through. Even when the child knows that the parent can really do nothing much, an apology soothes the soul. It calms raging emotions

If you are a friend or close relative of someone who has come out to you: BREATHE. Count till 10. Count till hundred if you have too. (This goes for parents too). It's a great honour and privilege to have been told something like this. Out of all the other people is his life, your friend has trusted you with his secret. It indicates his absolute trust in you. Its ok to be afraid and confused. Your gay friend has been all that and much much more for a lot longer than you have. On no account should you rat him out to his parents, your parents , your friends or anyone for that matter, unless you think he is in danger of self harm.

And lastly, to all my gay and transgendered brethren...You are not alone. I know what you are going through. Every single minute aspect of it. Pain, anger, confusion are all part of accepting yourself. And know that one day you will accept yourself. See yourself as strong, beautiful and wonderful human beings who have the same right to happiness as does everyone else.

I salute your bravery.

======now remember this every time you keep cursing them..karma will get you someday..