People have thousands of prejudices stacked up unconsciously and, in their whole lifetime, they might never even discover they're there. Some people assume that because someone is gay, they are out to sexually harass every single guy he meets. Some people assume that because a person is colored, they are uncivilized or uneducated. Some people assume that because someone is atheist, something really bad must have happened to them to make them not believe. Some people assume that Caucasian people are all just stuck up and racist. It can even come down to people assuming that Asians are always bad drivers. Some people assume that just because a kid acts a certain way or dresses a certain way, the kid is not worthy of his or her peers’ respect. People are afraid, even terrified, of what is different

If you don’t believe me, take example in Seth Walsh. I highly doubt you know who he was. Yes, was. He committed suicide in 2010. He was an openly gay 13 year old who hanged himself in his backyard. He was teased at school for being gay, but also for the way he dressed and his mannerisms, which were deemed “girly”, and thus he was not worthy of his peers respect. For some strange reason, “girly” is deemed a bad thing by the vast majority of the male population.

Seth Walsh was bullied at school. Then he transferred to homeschooling because the bullying was so bad. It didn’t stop. Even after he was basically out of his schoolmate’s lives, they still harassed him over the internet, the phone, even in person. It was because he was gay, and the way he dressed and acted didn’t conform to the ways of the bullies’ society. They were so upset someone could possibly step outside the sphere of “manliness” that they bullied him to death. Literally. That is a very real form of ignorance and prejudice.

When you really get down to it, what is wrong with someone being gay? Really? Where is the true basis for some aspects society we never really question?

What is wrong with boys wearing skirts? What is wrong with girl wrestlers? Why are the London Olympics contemplating putting female boxers in miniskirts, even after they worked so hard to get into the Olympics and overcome sexism? Why is it strange for boys to like fashion? Why is it bad for girls to play football? Why is weird for a man to take care of his children just as much as his wife? Why is it strange for boys to like boys, for girls to like girls? Why are people so adamant to keep the sexes in their little bubbles of existence? Why is gay marriage legal in only 7 out of 50 states? Why do only Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, and some of America allow gay marriage out of 196 countries on this planet? 7 out of 196! Why is it strange for a boy to wear makeup, for a girl to play sports, for a boy to like dolls, for a girl to like action figures? Why is that bad, or weird? Why are people against it, why does it infuriate them, and why does it make them harass people into suicide?

Really, when you think about it, why? What is the true reason for it, besides the fact that people are just plain scared? They are terrified of the truth, and of the foreign world outside of their puny little world in which they are the center. I can honestly say, when I think about this, I’m ashamed to be human. I’m ashamed to be in a species of cowardly, spineless, reticent ignoramuses who can’t accept that people should be able to like a person, not a gender. People should be able to like what they like, dress however they want to dress, and do whatever they want with their lives, and have no one stop them because of their gender, race, or sexual orientation. These are things that people see on the outside, and it makes them blind to the beautiful inside of every single human being. No matter how corny this is, it is a shining and radiant truth: everyone has the right to be who they really are.