I am sick of it.

I am sick of it.

I am sick of people who ignore the obvious homophobic aspect to crimes when it suits them.

I am sick of people being assaulted, raped and even murdered because they identify as LGBT, or any other description which doesn’t fit into a violent fuckwit’s idea of humanity.

I am sick of crimes which are not investigated as fully and effectively as they could be because police forces don’t know how to treat crimes where the victim was trans, but may not have been out to everyone.

I am sick of people who believe that feel they need to piss on LGBT people and their lives just so that they can eke the smallest crumb of superiority out of their own sorry excuse for a life.

I am sick of people whose own cognitive abilities screech to a halt at the word “Muslim”, as if no further exploration is necessary.

I am sick of people who cannot grasp that a single crime can have more than one motive.

I am sick of people who think that LGBT people who want to be treated as equal citizens are “all want, want, want”.

I am sick of people who place it upon themselves to decide which crumbs of equality LGBT people should find themselves happy with.

I am sick of people who think that telling the world that “radical Muslims hate gay people” makes their own homophobia something that can and should be ignored.

I am sick of people who think that it’s okay that LGBT people can be fired from their jobs for no reason other than their employer doesn’t like their gender identity.

I am sick of people who claim that trans people are a threat if they go to the toilet in public facilities.

I am sick of people who think that Islam is the only religion that has extremist elements.

I am sick of people who ignore the Christian preachers who have thanked the Lord for the massacre in Orlando, claiming that the victims were all paedophiles.

I am sick of people who think that starting sentences with “I’m not a homophobe, but…” allows them to expose their tawdry little prejudices without challenge.

I am sick of people claiming that calling for an examination of gun purchase laws is somehow “politicising a tragedy”, while a Republican candidate for President thanking people for their support of his unconstitutional proposal to ban travel by any one person following a particular religion is not.

I am sick of feeling guilty for sharing in the grief of so many lives lost in one incident, thousands of miles from home.

I am sick of all the lives lost, all around the world, every day because of intolerance and prejudice.

I am sick of wasting so much energy on the liars, hypocrites and homophobes who either ignore violence against LGBT people on a daily basis, or seek to use it as a prop for their own bigotry.

I am sick of hating them.

But I’m not sorry that I do.

Because I also know there is love in the world.

I know that every day, I will see evidence of people of all sexualities, of all faiths, and none, treating each other with respect, love and kindness.

I know that every day, those moments will cause the hate to subside.

I know that those moments far outweigh anything the hate-filled people could hope to achieve.

And while I know that those people do not care for people like me, like my friends, my family, my society — while they either wish us dead, wish us ill, or wish to just wish we would hide away — I do not wish them dead as others would wish us.

Because I know that they will live.

In a world that will survive, that will thrive, that will breed love and where amity and compassion can only grow, their hate will be their prison cell.

Their bigotry shall be their prison.