When I was walking down the street the other day, I noticed a couple walking ahead on the sidewalk in front of me, standing close together and holding hands. I did not think anything of it and went about my business, talking to my friends who were walking with me and continuously checking my phone.

Not seconds after I had looked away, a car comes driving past us, stopped briefly next to the couple and shouting from their car, "Is that your boyfriend?!" Laughing loudly, the car sped off.

The couple stopped walking, one pulling the other in close.

It wasn't until we had walked closer, that I noticed the couple in question were two males.

As an ally of the LGBTQ+ society, I have witnessed many acts of both discrimination and equality directed towards my close friends or fellow classmates. While some may think that the car full of girls practically catcalling this couple was just being funny, or even applauding the two students for holding hands while walking down the streets, it wasn't an act of kindness.

These two students were clearly embarrassed by what had happened and immediately stopped holding hands on the rest of their walk to wherever they were going.

You never know how someone is doing with the process of coming out. This could have been the first time they were comfortable walking this way in the public eye, and now the embarrassment they just endured may make this process even harder.

Let me ask you a question. If you were one of the passengers in that car, driving down the road either to get food or visit another friend, and you saw a heterosexual (straight) couple walking down the street beside you, would you have stopped and practically catcalled them for being 'super cute'? No, you wouldn't have.

Because in today's world, it is considered perfectly 'normal' to see a heterosexual couple, but as soon as a homosexual couple, or a transsexual, or anything other than a person outside of the typical "straight cisgender" norm come into view, the world turns all of their attention onto them.

Do you want to show a same-sex couple you accept them? Do you want to meet a trans person and make them feel accepted in your group? Here's the trick. Do absolutely nothing. You treat them like you would any other human being because, no matter what title or label they identify themselves as, they still have a name. They are still a person. They are human, no different than you and I.

So, to the car full of girls that thought they were doing the right thing by calling attention to the same-sex couple who bravely held hands together while walking through their college campus, how dare you.

Treat everyone the way you accept everyone to treat you, and the world will continue to go on smoothly.