Love is love, love is beautiful, and love is important. It’s amazing how much wonderful love there is on this planet, be it the love of other people, of life, of nature and beauty or anything else. And all of this wonderful love is what keeps this world strong and keeps us all moving, especially in times of hate, fear, and anger. And recently, we have seen a lot of hate, fear, and anger.

Treat all lives as equal. Regardless of who you pray to or if you even pray. Regardless of what color your skin is, regardless of what pronouns you use, regardless of who you love. You are a beautiful, loved, important, and unique soul that deserves to be respected and treated as an equal. The awful thing is that there is always going to be hateful people out there who don’t understand that these beautiful, unique differences that make us who we are are not bad or scary things. These people who let their fear of differences; their lack of understanding get in the way of love. It’s a battle that has been fought for ages, and it is a battle that is still being fought.

But we must never let this hate and fear get the better of us. This battle has to be fought in hope that in the future everyone is loved and respected, differences and all, not in spite of the differences. Fear has commandeered us for too long and in the end there comes a time where we all need to take a stand for those we love, for the right to love, and for the right to be an equal in the world. Even if you are not fighting necessarily for yourself, you can help promote others voices in this battle, and let them know that they are important, that they are loved, and that they matter now and always will.

All of us have loved before, so the idea that there are people out there that fear a love that is different from their own blows my mind. I am a straight female; I like men. My brother is a gay male; he likes men. And here’s the thing: there is nothing wrong with that. He’s still a person that deserves to love and be loved because love is love, no matter who you love. We need to maximize the love in this world, not limit it, least of all out of fear and hate. If I haven’t said it enough for you people, love is one the most important things that we have going for us. Being able to love strengthens us as people, no matter who we are. We’re all important. Our differences help make us beautiful, and all of the love we have in this world and in our own lives is what makes us strong. Remember, my friends, you are important and you are loved.