(PEOPLE) We're Someone You Know, Too

Aside from the commonsense issues touched on in the image on the right, why should ANY human being be denied the right to fall in love with whomever they choose, who chooses them in return?  Didn't we go through this with interracial marriages more than 50 years ago in this country?  And whether people want to believe it or not, IT'S THE SAME THING; someone black falling in love with someone white, someone Christian falling in love with someone Jewish, one man falling in love with another man - THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE, because none of these are CHOICES; being gay is no more a choice than choosing dark skin or green eyes or ten fingers on each hand.  It is how you are born - how GOD made you - and if we're all God's children then we all deserve the same rights and respect.  Yeah, I know, in a perfect world ... because racial and religious and gender discrimination is still alive and well.  But hell, at least the rest of you can marry legally; imagine fearing showing your love for the person who means the world to you, even by so much as walking down a street and holding hands, because it could mean getting beaten or killed?

And if we ARE "1-in-10", that means the likelihood that someone you know and purport to love is probably LGBT - whether they are willing to admit it to you (or anyone else) or not.  And do you really want someone you care deeply about to fear YOU; to pull away from you, or hide who they are from you out of fear of rejection, let alone something far worse?  Could you condemn your child or your sister or your parent or lifelong best friend to knowing the real you, the way you do whenever you shake your head or roll your eyes or spew your anger at another endorsement or news article about gay marriage or LGBT equality?

Because if you do have someone like that close to you - who hasn't told you, especially - then believe it, it's because you've already somehow expressed that hate.  And it may be okay with you to have that opinion in public, but know that's also the face you show to them, every single day.

Think about it.