Scarleteen

It's been a year since the Pulse shooting, and all the discussion around it in the next few days may bring up some tough feelings for people. This is a space to vent and support each other around those feelings.

I still can't believe that happened. It saddens me to think there are people out there with so much hate in their heart. This is why I believe we need gun control, but we also need more compassion. We can't let things like this keep happening. This is why I won't accept people brushing off LGBT issues because they don't already have "all the right". People are still pushing them so that it is harder for them to be in relationships, adopt, etc. Society still doesn't fully accept different sexualities despite the progress we made. And it may seem small at first but when you let that hatred fester without anyone stopping you or changing your mind, it creates things like the pulse shooting. It wasn't just a mass shooting; it was a hate crime. Changing laws is one thing, but changing minds is a whole other notion. It's just like with African Americans and slavery; even when it was over the mindset wasn't, so they were still treated poorly. People need to keep doing everything they are to embrace diversity and acceptance that we're all different so things like this don't happen, that love is the norm and hatred is not normal, and there are enough people to stop the hatred from manifesting into something awful.