Much to my chagrin, I recently learned there are individuals who call themselves LGBTQ allies, yet don’t actually approve of transgender.

I know, I know, that’s what I get for idealizing people, but um, what?

At the risk of sounding redundant, LGBTQ stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer. You support them all, or you don’t support any of them. This is not to say that every LGBTQ individual is lumped together under one umbrella (though we, as a society, often do that) without distinctions of identities and preferences, but that not supporting transgender men and women means you still subscribe to the gender norms that tear those individuals down every day.

The main hesitance I see in accepting gender non-conforming stems from religious ideology: “God made you a certain way, and you don’t have the right to change that.” For years, this retort was the same reasoning chauvinists used against lesbians, gays and bisexuals, but we have since steered toward a more accepting reaction. How long will it take to legalize gender-neutral bathrooms? Dogma does not necessarily cause intolerance and nor should it; you can love and care for someone you don’t agree with. Affirmation and subscription are not one in the same.

With the devastating Orlando shooting still fresh on our minds, I hope we can look back with newfound perspective on prejudice because countless xenophobes – or worse, so-called allies – are just a few aggravated circumstances away from doing the same thing. Check your values before you hang that pride flag and accidentally give someone a ray of hope where further, ignorant darkness instead exists.