Show love, acceptance to LGBTQ+ community
During Pride Month it is great to see the acceptance, love, inclusion and celebrations. And I have also noticed the concerns and opposition. Sadly, the opposition reflects intolerance and exclusion and appears to expose a lack of understanding about the LGBTQ+ community. But the fact is, people who are LGBTQ+ are our family, neighbors, friends, co-workers, medical professionals, postal workers, lawyers, shop owners and countless other roles. In other words, they are just like the rest of the community, people working to make their lives and the lives of their loved ones better. They simply want the freedom to love and be loved, openly and freely. Isn't that something we all want?
Take time this month to contact a friend or family member that is part of the LGBTQ+ community and tell them you are an ally, loving and accepting all for who they are right now. If you think you do not know a member of the LGBTQ+ community, find someone, hold out your hand and start listening and getting to know them as a person. Starting today, we should all be allies to the LGBT+ community.
For those offering a faith-based response that God does not accept the LGBTQ+ community, as a Catholic I can only comment on Christianity with any depth. And that leads me to a very simple lesson: We can be comforted knowing God loves us, unconditionally and always. God does not call us to love some people and not others. We are called to always love everyone and not just those we arrogantly believe worthy of love. God's teaching can easily be condensed to love others as we are loved by God and to include everyone in that love.
Anything less is simply not acceptable.
Tom Southall
Arlington Heights