A few days ago, I went on a casual scroll down Facebook road and came across a photoshopped image of four shirtless men attempting to mount the Pride flag on top of a mountain. The photo was side by side with its original counterpart- a famous photograph taken by Joe Rosenthal on February 23, 1945 that depicts several American Marines raising an American flag atop Mount Suribacki during the Battle of Iwo Lima toward the end of the second world war.

Although this was not the first time I had come across this photo, I decided to take a look at the comments and found exactly what I assumed would be there. From hateful threats to smack talk of former presidents, I saw the type of hate I have been seeing on social media as long as I have had the accounts.

Known as "the gay adaptation of Iwo Jima", the picture was created by a fine arts photographer, Ed Freeman, in 2005 for the cover of a LGBT magazine called Frontiers. Although the recreation went virtually unnoticed at first, it rose to prominence ten years later in the summer of 2015 when the Supreme Court ruled gay marriage legal across the nation.

Although created with the lovely intention of exposing the struggle of the LGBTQ+ community gaining rights and their triumph, the picture was taken with extreme negativity from many of those who viewed the work.

According to NBCConnecticut, Freeman started receiving death threats from users the day the court ruling was announced, most of them believing that, despite their support of the LGBT community, the photo wrongly compared the struggles of American soldiers to that of those fighting for LGBT rights.

While I can see the perspective of those who believe this to be true, I found myself having to disagree. As liberal a stance as it may be, I strongly believe that 2017 should be the year that we stop prioritizing one struggle over another, treat each other equally, and support every single breathing individual.

We, as a human race, cause the violence our troops go through. Let's support them.

Let's support all skin colors.

Let's support all religions.

Let's not cram our beliefs down the throats of others.

Let's support all languages.

All parts of our planet and the life that calls it home.

All disabilities.

All ambitions.

All hardships.

All those who fall under the species of human.

Let's support them all.

If you have not noticed yet, we do not exactly have the most open, respectful leaders right now.

Instead of degrading him, or her, or them, let's instead boost one another and give each other the basics of what we need to survive.

For the rest of 2017, let's do it. Let's support each other, and see where our behavior takes us.