I should really be working on a Criminal Psychology assignment right now, but I’m alone in this Mac Lab and the sound of my fingers jabbing the keys to release the thoughts pounding in my head right now is twenty times more enthralling.

I’ll start with a disclaimer. I fully support gay rights. What, a right-sided woman who supports equal rights? Alert the press. Crazy! In all seriousness though, I believe that who you love is your business and if you’ve found the person with whom you’re supposed to spend the rest of your life with, there shouldn’t be anybody in this world stopping you. We live in a country with a right to religious freedoms. This is great, honestly. But we also live in a world where every movement has the potential to have an equal and opposite reaction.

I literally just read an article on Buzzfeed News that has me rethinking what we’re actually teaching students. The headline reads, “Pennsylvania High School Students Organize ‘Anti-Gay Day’,” so naturally I’m enthralled. You see, I believe that if we’re going to create a movement centered around equal rights for everyone, we need to be aware of the way everyone sees it. To summarize the article, a group of students in a Pennsylvania high school organized a “Day of Silence” in cooperation with the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, (GLSEN.) According to the article the movement was a success with anywhere between 30 to 50 students participating. However, the next day wasn’t as peaceful as the students had intended. That Thursday, students were met with judgement, bullying and ridicule. Apparently this was part of a second movement, which students titled, “Anti-Gay Day.” Essentially, students who were apparently unsupportive of LGBT rights wore flannel and posted various bible verses on lockers and social media platforms of students who are gay. This “protest” went on for two days.

Now I’m just appalled. Here’s the thing guys, if we’re going to be allowed to protest for what we think is right, those with the opposite opinion deserve the exact same abilities. Need I remind you what the very first Amendment to The Constitution reads?

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Like I mentioned before, every movement is entitled to an equal and opposite reaction. I do believe that the students at that school who believe that gay relationships are wrong have a right to let their voices be heard. But the way this was done is absolutely terrifying. If you didn’t read the article, it states that in one classroom a noose was tied to a flag and a “lynch list” was made. First of all children, get your noose off our American Flag. Second, is this 1962? A lynch list? In a high school? Oh my goodness. Stop.

We need to educate teenagers and young adults on the seriousness of some of their actions. A statistic from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that “19% to 29% of gay and lesbian students and 18% to 28% of bisexual students experiences dating violence in 2013.” Why? I understand maybe feeling uncomfortable or having a desire to verbalize your views, but in what state does violence fix anything? I get frustrated. I get angry. Hell, I’m angry at all these little pieces of crap threatening someone with lynching. That doesn’t mean I’m going to march my happy ass down to that school and hang a noose off all their lockers.

In no world do you need to tell someone their worthless.
In no world do you need to tell someone you hate them.
In no world do you need to tells someone they shouldn’t exist.

Everybody matters. I don’t care if you’re black, blue, gay, straight, tall, short, skinny, slow, Northern, Southern, Republican, Democrat, boy, girl or any other characteristic used to describe a person – you matter. Your opinion matters. Your viewpoints matter. Your love matters. Your fight matters. Your hope matters.

Threats, even if empty, still make an impact. If you’re reading this please, please, please pass it along so that it can hopefully fall into the browser of someone who needs it. We, unfortunately, live in a world where people do some messed up things. Violence will never go extinct, we’re all human. But we can cut it back and we can make statistics become so small that there’s no use in finding them every year.

I know I post a lot of satirical content on here, and maybe even some things that don’t make a lot of sense to the most of you. But please, don’t take anything I’ve posted in here lightly. And to the students who organized the peaceful protest last Wednesday, I applaud you. You’re the real MVP’s, and I can’t wait to see each and every one of you, gay or straight, take on the world and kick it’s ass.

XOXO