"Thats alright, I love you" said my mother, as I told her that i liked boys. "Im sure everything will be fine" I think to myself as i walk down the hall in my rainbow pride hoodie. I could not have been more wrong, because not 5 seconds after my feet clear the threshold, a boy gets in my face and calls me a f*g, walking away laughing. I try and push it aside, storing it away like a jar on a shelf, but before I know it the shelf is rocked once again. "Jesus wouldn't be very proud of you!" comes from behind me, again, I try and shelve it, but sometimes hate cannot be shelved. See when I told my mom that I was gay, she didn't account for the internalized homophobia of a small religious town, she didn't account for the fact that religion and homosexuality are polar opposites, she didn't account for all the misinformation against the LGBT community, because when fox news says that homosexuality is not natural, that is an outright lie. It is abundantly clear that whoever runs fox news chooses to cherry pick their evidence, because swans, penguins, monkeys, flies, dolphins, ducks, giraffes, and even vultures, all exhibit homosexual behavior, and yet the argument still exists that homosexuality is not natural. My question is, why not live and let love, why am I to be shamed for loving another when in the bible, Matthew 22:39 commands to love thy neighbor as thyself. Why am I to be disrespected for loving another when the Quran commands at 17:70 that everyone's God-given human dignity must be respected, regardless of his or her faith, race, ethnic origin, gender, or social status. So, I ask you, when all is said and done, and you stand waiting to be judged, will you get your happy ending, or will you be cast into the flames for your hate?