This Is Me A Bit Pissed Off

My apologies, but this is going to be a rant of sorts.

I've been thinking lately, as I am approaching the first anniversary of BOATK.  In the past year, what has changed?  No, I'm not talking about me, the highs and lows I've been through over the past year.  No, I'm not talking about the m/m publishing world, or the publishing world at large.  This is not about that. 

I'm talking about the world as it means for a gay man. I'm talking about what it means for the GLBT world at large.

Today, I posted a meme regarding how people view the GLBT community being parents on Facebook.  It's one of those pics I'm sure you see on FB walls all the time.  There's anger there, the idea that those of us that are GLBT are not held with the same respect and/or views that straight people are.  It's a sad fact that, even in 2012, there are still many, many people against us.  And not just being parents or active parts of a functioning community.  People are against us for existing, as if we are not made from the same God that made them.  God, they say, did not approve of what we are.  God, they say, thinks of us as an abomination.  We are abhorrent.  We are evil.  We are sin personified.  We go against his word and therefore, we should be strung up like we are animals, like we are nothing better than the dirt beneath their feet.  To them, we are nothing.  To them, we are WORSE than nothing.

But you know what?

You want to know FUCKING what?

We are better than that.

We are stronger than that.

We are GREATER than that.

And, unfortunately, we've still got a ways to go.

The tide is changing, yes.  People are more open than what they were before.  At least, some of them are.  How is it, folks, that we are in such a modern age, yet still governed by ideals that seem so ancient?  How is it that, given who we are, we can still feel hatred for our fellow man/woman/child?  There's anger on both sides.  There's hatred on both sides. 

And I'm sick of it.  I'm so fucking sick and tired of it.

I want the fucking world to change.  I want to be able to love who I want without prejudice.  I want to be able to eventually say, without receiving judgment, that THIS is my family.  THIS is who I am.  THESE people are who I choose to love.  Part of me says it's too much to ask.  Part of me says that, regardless of how I feel and think, the world won't change.  Part of me is crushed DAILY by the hatred I see.

But you know what?

There is a small voice that screams louder than the rest.  There's a small voice that says we have the capacity for change, that we can do what we need to  welcome anyone that needs us.  That we can make the world a different place.  That we can make it better.

Fuck.  I'm pissed.  Seriously pissed as I type this.

But, I’m also hopeful.  I’m also wishing.  I’m also fucking praying.

So, you know what?  Make the fucking change.  Today.  Now.  While we still can, while it still matters to the ones that follow us. 

MAKE THE FUCKING CHANGE.