A couple of years ago, my best friend came out to me via Skype. He didn't even say it, he typed it. I was the first person he had told and, as such, I took my protective role quite strongly. If we were close before, after that we became inseparable. I was his confidante, and I was willing to do everything to protect him from unwanted exposure and judgement.
I don't know how many times I have pretended to be dating someone he was seeing. Every time our friends got suspicious about a person he was dating, I would jump and claim him as mine. It was easier for us to explain why I was having a relationship out of nowhere than to explain my best friend's love life.
It has been more than three years since that Skype call. In those three years I have seen him coming out to his family, his friends, and the world. He has found happiness with a person just as marvelous as he is. He has become a beautiful person of whom I see way past his sexual orientation. What bothers me, however, is how many people fail to love and appreciate such valuable members of our society because of a difference so unimportant as their choice of whom to love.
Yesterday, I went to my city's pride parade. The rain fell over rainbow flags, glittery posters, and a community so tight that it managed to manifest its love in a world full of discrimination. The stoned street was not an obstacle for the fabulous six-inches heels that walked at the rhythm of Marilyn Monroe's "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend". Yesterday, I was among loving and nonjudgmental people that cared for a person's value more than anything else.
Almost 50 years ago, the LGBTQ+ rights movement started in New York City, but we still see hate crimes coming from people that fear for what they can't understand: love. I fail to see what there is to condemn, and it maddens me to see people claiming their resentment to be justified by religion and an unequal law. How many people have died for being brave enough to love whoever they want to love and be whoever they want to be? How many more will perish because of being born in an unfair world that fails to love more and hate less?
I want to have many more people parading among those beautiful drag queens that have fought against all odds to be who they are. I want to be able to go to my best friend's wedding someday. I want to see both homosexual and heterosexual couples adopting children into loving homes. I want a world where you won't get killed because of what you wear or who you marry. I want a world that sees my best friend the same way I see him: as a human being that deserves respect and the same rights I have.
Yesterday, when the parade was over, I didn't see gays, lesbians, or transvestites. I saw people. People just like me and you, looking for their place in a mad world that still hasn't learnt how to look past its own insecurities. I saw people fighting for their right to love and be loved. Just like anyone else.
