Not all straight people have white picket fences

We’ve also faced discrimination  
from indignant condemnation  
 
Labels are a funny thing  
as though others can’t understand  
the ingredients of injustice  
toward those who are different  
 
You see, hate works both ways  
 
Just because I’ve never back-flipped  
off an experience doesn’t mean shit  
I’ve swallowed the pain of prejudice  
so deep it took decades to mend  
 
It’s all born of blatant ignorance  
 
It’s like telling an adoptive mother  
that she can’t understand how to love  
a child she didn’t birth from her own womb  
or accusing someone of not knowing God  
because they don’t go to church  
 
Love is love, and hate is hate  
especially when one becomes  
the judgmental prejudice  
they wish to erase  
 
Let’s get it Straight—  
 
true hell is a prison  
where pain drowns reason  
within a closed-closet of silence  
or open-door of persecution  
that’s been felt by every human  
being on this earth  
despite the reason  
 
No one has priority on suffering  
because they speak different languages  
 
Those who have truly cast out demons  
and survived a personal holocaust  
strive to ease the suffering
of others through awareness  
 
Those who have felt the edge  
of a bridge  
bottle of pills  
or loaded gun  
because they were so violated  
by sorrow even their language failed  
often succumb to suicide  
because no one cared  
 
Compassion is as universal as pain  
we must be careful not to alienate  
any ally willing to foster the cause
 
Must we be starving to feed  
someone who is?  
 
Not all straights  
live in a white picket fence  
of religion or apathetic ignorance  
 
~