Tuesday Newsday: International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia

So on this first day of the Hop For Visibility, Awareness, and Equality I want to keep things simple.
Bring it down to the basics.
Every person out there is someone's child, aren't they?
We may or may not have children--some don't want to be parents, and that's fine. But we've all been someone's child. And how wonderful it would have been for each of us if our parents had  taken Kahil Gibran's words about children to heart.
I'll let Sweet Honey in the Rock say it for me.

We can strive to be like the children of today.
We can learn from them.
We can allow them to be who they are.
Lesbian.
Gay.
Bi.
Trans.
Genderqueer.
Questioning.
Intersex.
Even Heterosexual.

We can accept them as they are.
And oh, we should. We really, really should.

I'll leave you with a last thought. How amazing and wonderful was your life, or would it have been if your parents had treated you as a gift. Unwrapped you like a precious, vital thing, and then done everything in their power to learn from you. Accepted you as you are, and seen themselves as the platform from which you would spring forth into the stars? Oh, what a happy life that.

We can give our children that. We can give the youngsters we know that, whether they are our children or not. We can give it to them with our votes, with our daily walk through the world. Simply by being our authentic selves, and standing up for their right to do the same. Let's all commit to do that. Because oh, the things we will see...




On Children
Kahlil Gibran

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

To Visit All the other Amazing Blogs participating in this Hop simply click HERE.