I’m angry.

I don’t like being angry. It’s not my natural state. Normally, I’m pretty happy-go-lucky. I’m go-with-the-flow. I’m every-stranger-gets-a-smile. I’m “easy like Sunday morning.” 

But not today.

I’m learning there is a reason gay people surround themselves with “chosen” family. Because family (and friends) so often let gay people down. Over and over and over.

And I’m not talking about MY family. My family—Catholics, Christians, the whole lot—has loved me unconditionally since the day I came out of the closet at age 46… and every day before that. If they take issue with my gayness, they haven’t shared that with me. Why? Because they’re good, kind humans who care about others.

But Christians, Patriots, and whatever else you may identify as first, when you post your anti-Pride Month rhetoric during the ONE month of the year that we get to celebrate who we are and who we love…

During the ONE month of the year when we get to wear rainbows and hold hands…

During the ONE month of the year when we get to stand in solidarity with our sisters and brothers who were beaten and jailed simply for being who they were…

During the ONE month of the year when we could all come together and respect and honor those things that make us different, special, and unique…

Know that you are damaging someone you claim to love… or someone who has always wanted your love—the love they deserve, the love they did nothing to lose.

You know that not everyone believes in the same way you do, right? That the whole “love the sinner, hate the sin” schtick is tedious and horribly hurtful? That when you carry on about the “true” meaning of the rainbow, that kind of “truth” is only true for you and those who believe like you?

Here’s the real truth about the rainbow: It’s science. It’s refracted light. That’s it.

I would never deny you your right to believe what you want to believe. But it’s like shouting fire in a crowded building—when your belief system is used to harm others, that’s where I draw the line.

I hope when this little blue planet stops spinning that your god or your country or your faith or your own pride or your cult-leader felon or whatever else you put first in your own life is worth the lifelong damage you have caused the people who never, ever deserved such cruelty and harm.

If there is a god, I can’t wait to walk through her “pearly gates.” I can’t wait to hear her say that your self-righteousness on this earth will be repaid in the next life with whatever pain you inflicted on others, for no greater sin than loving who they loved.

Am I angry? I am. Is that a sin? In your religious eyes, it is. But I’m not telling people they’re wrong, unworthy, or less than simply because of who they ARE. And if you want to measure sins, dear hypocrites, I’ll take my sin of anger over your sins of harm. You have destroyed—and continue to destroy—the hearts and souls of those you were supposed to love.

I’m pretty sure that’s not what Jesus would do.

Please, in the name of whatever you believe in, just stop. Stop with the passive-aggressive posting, stop with the condemnation of others, stop believing everything you think and do is right and true and infallible and universal. Stop using words like evil and depraved and sinful to describe people who are just trying to live their lives. Stop using your religion to hate.

Just stop.

You are actively hurting others.

And I don’t want to be angry about it any more.

It’s Pride Month. And rainbows make me happy. Let me be happy.

Let us all be happy.