We Are

We are your brothers and sisters, your aunties and uncles, your friends, your co-workers.

We are the children of mothers and fathers, we are mothers and fathers.
We are your teachers, your firefighters, your grocery clerk, your doctors and nurses.
We are your neighbors, we are the strangers on the streets.

We celebrate weddings and birthdays, just like you.
We celebrate major holidays, just like you.
Some days hold a special significance for us, just like you.
We worship in churches, synagogues, mosques, in nature, just like you.

We hold crying babies and the hands of the dying, just like you.
We bleed when hurt, we die of cancer, heart disease, and AIDS, just like you.
We are flawed human beings, just like you.
We sin, just like you.

We love--loyally and fiercely and with passion--just like you.
We would die for our children, we would fight for our country, we despair over human events, and are angry when confronted with evil. Just like you.

We are human. Just like you.

When your hatred and bigotry are directed at us--the lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgendered--we are afraid. We are terrified. We are bloodied. We die.

Why? Why are we singled out? We are not different. We are not "them".

We are human. Just like you.