This is going to be a controversial article and few people (if any) are going to agree with my viewpoint, but all the same, I think that this is an issue that needs to be talked about.

*If you've been following this story, feel free to skip the following re-cap.*

For anyone who isn't familiar with Mark Salling: he was the actor who played Puck, one of the main characters on the hit television show Glee- a dramatic-comedy centered around a high school Glee club.

The premise of the show was mostly fun and upbeat; featuring a good mix of teenage angst, but with the more dramatic elements of the plot relieved with a funny script and perhaps one too many covers of Journey songs.

Despite the show's generally lighthearted nature, the cast themselves had dark secrets plaguing their personal lives. Many of the show's stars had been swept up in controversy at one point or another; most notably when Cory Monteith, who played Finn, was found dead in his hotel room, having overdosed on heroin and alcohol, losing his long battle with addiction.

Fans who thought that they had seen the worst were in for a rude awakening when Mark Salling was arrested in December of 2015 after one of his ex-girlfriends reported him for being in possession of child pornography. Upon investigation, Salling was found to be in possession of more than 50,000 images depicted children, some as young as three years old, downloaded between April and December of that year.

Salling had been in the hot seat before after being accused of sexual battery back in 2013 but was able to maintain his celebrity status and fanbase.

Naturally, when the grotesque truth about Salling's pedophilia was revealed, he became a pariah.

In September of 2017, Salling officially pled guilty and was due for sentencing in March 2018. However, on January 30, 2018, Salling was found dead in his home, having hung himself.

*End of re-cap.*

If you haven't been on Twitter since the news broke, go to the trending page and click on Salling's name. You'll notice a couple of huge differences between the tweets pouring in since Salling's death and the ones that followed Monteith's death; one of the most glaring being the uncomfortable silence on behalf of Salling's Glee co-stars and former best friends.

The majority of the Glee cast has not tweeted since the news was announced, although a few (including Naya Rivera, who dated Salling for three years) have continued tweeting in a very "business-as-usual" manner, without even a vague mention of Salling. In fact, the only acknowledgment of the Glee star's death that I have come across so far, whereas the cast is concerned, has been a retweet by Jane Lynch (originally tweeted by Tim Davis- a vocal coach for the show), which read, "Let me be clear.

Having compassion for #MarkSalling in no way minimizes his crimes, nor does it minimize the pain and devastation of the victims of those crimes. I'm just saying stop adding to his family's pain. This was their son. If you're without sin, feel free to cast stones."

Davis' tweet is in response to the fact that not only is Salling not being mourned by the public, but his suicide is, in fact, being openly celebrated.

The majority of the tweets surrounding Salling rejoice at his death. Many urge other pedophiles to follow in his footsteps. Others theorize that Salling killed himself to escape his fate of becoming the unwilling object of an inmate's affections, much like the victims on his computer.

A small handful of social media users have taken to their keyboards to condemn the celebration of any suicide, while an even smaller handful has expressed their sympathy over Salling's passing, despite his crimes. These users are being promptly attacked for "supporting a pedophile", while the hateful messages continue to spread across the platform.

On the night of Salling's death, I came across a tweet by a popular YouTuber that I follow. In his tweet, he urged any fans speaking out against the morally insensitive messages regarding Salling's suicide to unsubscribe from his channel.

Up until this point in the day, I hadn't really thought about Salling too much. I had unfollowed his social media accounts back when his child pornography collection was initially discovered and had stopped watching Glee and actively keeping up with the old cast long before that point. Upon hearing the news, I sadly expressed to those with me how dark I now found the world to be, compared with how I had perceived it back in my Glee days and continued working, honestly forgetting about it until I was online later that night.

However, something about this tweet, in addition to the millions of other truly heartless words floating around the web, struck something inside of me, prompting me to post a reply. I explained how those "defending Salling" simply believed that the glorification of suicide was troubling and disrespectful to the deceased's loved ones and how it had nothing to do with "sympathizing with a pedophile" as the YouTuber had insinuated in his tweet.

I was promptly attacked within a minute of posting my response by another Twitter user, who wrote "anyone who mourns him (Salling) is also an asshole", implied that his own mother should hate his guts, and ending her response to me by saying that she hoped he suffered.

I shut down the exchange quickly, wishing her a good night, but my blood was boiling and I started realizing how messed up the entire situation was in general.

First of all, it doesn't matter what Mark Salling was or what he did- there ARE people who loved him right up until the very end. Even if his loved ones were mad at him and freezing him out due to the unforgivable nature of his crimes, I can't imagine a scenario in which they aren't still hurting right now, a mere day after his suicide. And it can't be easy to know that while you're planning a funeral for someone you loved, the rest of the world is celebrating.

Picture the person you love the most in the world. Now imagine they did something awful and you hate them for what they did, but you still love them for everything they were before. Imagine they killed themselves and now you're confused because you're disappointed and hurt by their actions, maybe even disgusted in who they turned out to be, but ultimately you still love them and always will.

Meanwhile, as you're dealing with your range of emotions and trying to process how you feel, every time someone hears that your loved one killed themselves, they respond, "Good. I hope more people like them do."

Salling was an obviously a sick individual and by possessing those images, he helped to further one of the most horrifying industries that exist in our world. We should not defend his character. But with the knowledge that his biggest crime was looking rather than touching (STILL NOT FORGIVABLE BY ANY MEANS), I don't think that it seems absurd to lay off of the hateful dialogue while those close to him mourn his death.

As I've already said, despite how a person who has never so much as been in the same room as Salling may feel about him, there ARE people who are devastated by his death, whether they are publicly expressing their grief or not. Mocking their feelings at a time like this is cruel.

I want to make it extremely clear that I firmly believe that pedophiles are some of the sickest individuals in the world. Yes, it would appear that they are born that way and it is a mental illness. But you cross a line from sick to evil when you act on those disturbing desires.

Everyone keeps trying to compare Salling's death to Monteith's by saying that Monteith fell victim to his drug addiction in the same way that Salling fell victim to his own mental illness. Or even more of a stretch, comparing pedophiles to homosexuals to garner some sympathy for the former's inability to help who they're attracted to, despite being shunned for it.

In my opinion, I think the best comparison for a person who is sexually attracted to children is to someone who fantasizes about murder but pushes the desire down because they know that it's morally wrong. Maybe that person goes to therapy or takes medicine to control their urges. Maybe they hate themselves and wish they could make the horrible thoughts go away, but can't. Maybe they are a good person overall, but can't control that one terrifying part of their brain.

They are sick and need help and deserve to be helped. However, the second that they give into their fantasies and kill someone, they are no longer "mentally ill and in need of help", but rather they have entered a point of no return and are a murderer. The same goes for those attracted to children.

They know it's awful.

They know that they aren't right in the head and need help and they DEFINITELY know they shouldn't be engaging those disturbing thoughts, even with "just" pictures. So the minute that they do, they are no longer a person deserving of sympathy. They are a monster who took advantage of something completely innocent.

It's obvious from the turbulent history of his romantic relationships that Salling was struggling with these demons for a long, long time. He crossed a line when he downloaded the images that were found on his computer. I fully believe that he was mentally tortured and ill, but when he gave in to his grotesque desires, he gave up the right to sympathy.

All the same, for the sake of empathy, the online firestorm needs to stop, or at least quiet down until his body is in the ground. If you can't understand why this is the right thing to do, then you are a monster too, just in a different way.

Feel free to leave your thoughts down below.