If there’s one hot button topic circulating in the news in this country today, it’s the LGBT rights and same-sex marriage issues. Being for or against it isn’t really a part of this conversation, but some honesty and humanity are definitely on the table for this post.

There are those in the LGBT community committing suicide everyday because they feel like they’ll never be accepted for whom they are. There is this feeling of brokenness. And the brokenness continues until finally, in the midst of the long held silence, they speak. They are honest. They come out from hiding. But because of their faith, and the faith of their family and friends, they are rejected. Over and over again, they hear the same message: You’re not welcome here. There is no place for you. You’re not normal.

Is my very existence somehow repulsive to you? Even as I say this from my closeted dwelling of fear and shame placed on me by the church and even society at large, from my life lived in service to God but not in your box of status quo Christians, I feel less than you. I am bisexual. I am not heterosexual. I have never been so. But if I told you that, would that change how you think of me? Would that make me less of a person even though you may have known me a long time—just not that aspect of my life? Oh, I’m sorry. I made you uncomfortable, because I happen to be attracted to men…and women. And you don’t know how to factor that into your world. Because I’m not like you. It hurts that I’m not like you, but if I spend all my time worrying about how I can be like everyone else, I will be miserable.

Because, here’s the deal. I am a real person. A human being. And if you were the one who was different, what right would I have to treat you as a lesser human being? If you could but walk a day in my shoes or in the shoes of someone else in the LGBT community, you’d understand maybe just a smidgen of what it’s like to be discriminated against.

There is not a gay agenda…just people who want to be treated like human beings. That’s all. They just want to be treated like everyone else—with dignity and respect. With love. But instead, this seeking for love is turned to rejection because those who are different make everyone else uncomfortable. I guess it’s just easier to hide the “different” people in a closet somewhere and quiet their screaming voices. Their piercing, screaming voices of shame and pain.

It’s not ok. And we’re not ok. We can’t just be not gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender. There are so many more complexities than simply not being something that is a part of you. That doesn’t mean it is all of who someone is, but it isn’t something reparative therapy can fix. Neither can the church, counseling, or strict biblical teaching on how homosexuality is wrong in most cases. You can’t put people in a box. You’re suffocating a whole group of people. Please. Stop. We need you to listen to what we need from you, my Christian and non-Christian human beings. We need your love. We need your support. We don’t necessarily need affirmation. We just want to be treated like human beings even if that makes you uncomfortable.

God help the outcasts.