Recently a lot of celebrities like Elliot Page have been coming out as members of the LGBTQ community. If you’re a member, you’re proud of them and happy to see them finally come out. If you’re straight, you’re maybe tired of seeing similar posts all over the internet, and see it as “attention seeking”. Just scrolling through the comments of Elliot page’s coming out post on instagram, you will see the split of the two sides. You’ll see people saying stuff like “You’re even more beautiful as a guy!” or “We’re so proud of you!”. On the other end, you see stuff like “Ellen Page*”, “I don’t care, you’re still Ellen”, or even “I will not accept this, unfollowed”. 

The LGBTQ community is used to all the negativity and hate, but that doesn’t mean they can take it. There are people in the world that know they’re gay or trans, but all of the harassment from straight people keeps them from coming out. Some people might even get beat by their parents or those close to them just for being gay because they can’t face the truth. These children are keeping themselves hidden because of what is happening to people like them all around the world. Like they’re trying to hide from a killer that is keeping them inside a closet.

Yes, some people might not be able to accept heavy information like that so easily. I can guarantee you that if you told someone that one of their siblings or parents died, they wouldn’t be able to accept that. But this is about a living person. This is a living human being that is finally telling you how they really feel about themselves, but you treat them like the plague. As if you never met them in your life. I’m sure it may be hard to fully process the information, but if you really want to be there for your child or friend, like really be there, you need to support them all the way. 

What you should see is people coming out from hiding. Not because they feel pressured to, but because they finally feel that it’s safe to come out. Like the killer keeping them inside is finally gone. What I want to see is not someone being treated like a normal person because they’re different, but being treated normal because they’re human.