Our hearts are with the friends and family of those injured and whose precious lives were taken in Orlando, and we stand with the entire LGBTQ community in grief. At TransFamily Support Services we are made up of allies, advocates, and members who work closely with the entire LGBTQ community to raise awareness, acceptance, visibility, and inclusiveness to support transgender youth and their families.

We are reminded today that we must work even harder.

Violence is anger and fear given form. If we see it and join into the hatred, because we are naturally going to feel fear and anger in response to senseless violence, then we perpetuate “us-versus-them” mentality, which in turn will only make the anger, fear, and resulting violence grow.   We have to do better. And we can.

The only thing that can defeat the ignorance of anger and fear is the powerful light of love. We cannot love too much. We must show faith in our fellow human beings. When they let us down, it means they were acting in ignorance, anger, and fear. In that case, we must love even more. But love is not enough. We must love and we must love actively.