Steve Jobs once said, "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition."

Oh, Steve, I wish you were alive today so I could thank you for that quote.

Last week, I wrote an article entitled "My Child Will Not Be Allowed To Be Transgender." To my surprise, the article quickly went viral and received over sixteen thousand shares, mostly via Facebook. Eventually, I stopped reading the comments below the article, but I won't be able to forget the heartless words that I did read before then. For every one encouraging comment, there were fifty disrespectful ones directed right at me. Odyssey's Facebook page even took down the article from their timeline, regardless of the fact that it was going viral.

Most people were just downright angry at what I wrote, and some tried to convince me that I was wrong. They used scientific facts, discredited my belief in God, and wrote long paragraphs that laid out bullet points as to why I'm wrong. These comments did nothing to change my opinion; if anything, they strengthened what I believe and made me even more determined to be a strong voice in this bitter world. I wasn't shocked, I wasn't upset and I wasn't going to let this stop me from continuing to stand up for what I believe. See, that's the beauty of being able to have an opinion.

Many readers accused me of blatantly hating on the LGBT community. I'm not sure how my words were twisted so quickly, but I can't say it enough: I have nothing against these people. I am no better than them. I have homosexual friends and they are some of the nicest people I have ever met. As someone who believes in the Bible, I cannot look them in the face and tell them that their homosexuality isn't a sin. It is, and it always will be in my opinion. But here's the thing: I sin too. I complain, lie, gossip - the list of wrongs goes on and on. I am nowhere near perfect, but I am still entitled to hold values and personal opinions. This doesn't make me a "bigot," "piece of shit," or "transphobe" (among countless other horrible names I have been called in the past week); it just makes me another American who wants to have a voice in society. This includes the freedom to raise my children as I see right and acceptable unto God.

Here's the hypocrisy in the feedback from my last article. People demand respect but can't give it back. They demand acceptance but can't accept anyone other than those who are just like them. Guess what? This is 2017. This is the United States of America: a country that fosters free speech and religion. If someone supports the LGBT community, they are free to write about it. Likewise, if someone like me does not support it, I am free to write about it. Unfortunately, the ignorance of Americans says that this is not how it should be. They think that their opinion is the only one allowed, but that's not how life works. If it was, what a giant mess our nation would be.

So please, feel free to disagree with what I believe. Tell me why you think I'm wrong and give me reasons to think you're right. I respect your opinion, but I will not respect your cruelty. Please do not wish me dead. Please don't wish suicide upon my future children. Please don't wish me to never have children. It only makes you look bad.

I will say it again: I will not allow my children to be transgender. I won't budge on this, and I most definitely will never support it.

That is my opinion and I am allowed to have it.