Living in Utah is, well… an experience. It’s very white, very conservative, and while I know there are many who will argue with me endlessly about this next comment, a certain religious organization exerts its influence over pretty much everything. Where San Francisco is tolerant of virtually everything short of  intolerance, Utah it the polar opposite.

Today I was trapped in a conversation that not only made me uncomfortable, it made me angry. The finer details are not important. Frankly, I refuse to devote space to words that shouldn’t never have been spoken in the setting I was in, much less repeated for someone to take as truth.

As human beings, we are programmed to crave acceptance, though some seek it more desperately than others. In any case, we form attachments, and unless we’re sociopathic, we share a need to be loved. Why would we want to deny a person of what is ultimately one of life’s greatest joys? Why would a person who claims to be religious, who claims to share a close, personal relationship with God, find it okay that a young person with years of their life ahead of them, committed suicide all because of their sexuality? If he or she were your child, would you honestly find that acceptable?

I can accept the fact that you have the right to your beliefs, misguided as they may appear to me. I can accept the fact that you can teach your children to perpetuate hate as you see fit, never even considering that your words could be killing one of them.

I can hope that by some miracle,  you will take a step back and think for a moment. If God created all of us in his image, how can you suggest that someone’s sexuality is an immoral sin, one that makes suicide an acceptable option?

Change can only take place when those of us who believe in the rights of all people, regardless of our personal beliefs, speak out. It is because of this that I will not stay quiet.