Forever I’ve been afraid of confrontation. I’ll agree to opinions, or say yes, or do thing that I don’t want to because I am afraid to confront the consequences of saying “no, I don’t agree”. I am afraid I won’t be able to defend myself or the people I love, so I just stand idly by and listen to people, some of whom I am supposed to respect, spew hate and intolerance.

This past week, something in me changed when I saw an article promoted by our dear Odyssey My Child Will Not Be Allowed To Be Transgender.

The author of this article began to explain to their audience all the reasons why they won’t accept their child if they come out as Trans, how their child will participate in conversion therapy, and most of all how they will be prayed for. My favorite part of this article was, to this author, all of this was justified because of God and the Bible.

I grew up religious. I went to church every Sunday, I attended Sunday school, and Jesus camp and eventually taught in both of those settings. During my time with the church, I was never exposed to the hate and fear of someone or something being so different than I, then I was while reading this article.

In my church days, I was taught to love with my whole being, and to learn about and accept anything I was unsure about. Since my religious experience was so different from this authors, I really have a hard time understanding how someone who claims to be a child of God can treat people who are different from them with so much hate.

You can tell me that this is your opinion and that you’re entitled to it all you want. You can have opinions on sports or politics or the weather or fishing or whatever the hell you want to have opinions on. But when someone’s existence comes into play, your opinion is not valid. It’s as simple as that. It’s not an opinion anymore. For these “controversial” topics the fine line between hate and opinion are nonexistent. We all know that hate stems from fear. So, what are you afraid of? A persons gender identification has nothing to do with anyone other than themselves, I don’t care if it’s your child or not.

As a result of this fear and hate, 41% of Transgender people attempt suicide at least once in their life-time, compared to the 4.6% of people attempting suicide in the general public, as well as 1 in 12 Trans people will be murdered as opposed to 1 in 600 cis-gendered. In an article for USAToday, Dr. Michelle Foricer is quoted, “The answer is to love your kids as is… Your love and acceptance is the best medicine your kids can ever get,” (cite).

My hope is that one day society will finally not have “opinions” on people of different sexual orientations or identifications. That one day people won’t even question or bat a lash at anyone that isn’t cis-gendered and heterosexual.