Hello Dan Savage.

My name is Peter and I've been a longtime fan of your podcast and comments in the media. I've also been very involved with the Human Rights Campaign and their work to getting the Equality Act passed. I'm 21 and only recently out of the closet. I opened up about my sexuality after the passage of marriage equality last June, and have since then been a very proud gay man.

It seemed that since marriage equality, our community was only going up. Even the passage of HB2 didn't make me cynical about the future that lies ahead of myself as a gay man. But this recent shooting has changed my world completely. Fighting for equality in housing, education, and employment seems like a joke after this massive act of violence occurred.

Anyway, don't know how to respond to this and I'm looking for someone in the...

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...community for guidance. Any would be appreciated.

Peter S.

They don’t win — the haters don't win — when they chase us, beat us, or kill us. They win when we stop fighting.

Please don’t stop fighting.

And please don’t despair. Hundreds of thousands of us died in the 80s and 90s when hate, fear, greed, racism, and negligence intersected with a deadly virus. A lot of us then felt they way you do now — that it was over, that it was hopeless, that the coming out and the organizing and the fighting had been for nothing, and that everything we had won up to that point was meaningless. And then we got up off our butts and we showed them — we showed those motherfuckers — that the fight in us was greater than the hate in them. We showed them that we were stronger and smarter than they were, we showed that fucking virus that we were stronger and smarter than it was, and we made it clear to them that we were not going to shut up and die quietly or go back into the closet and die alone.

And we only had each other for a while there — for a long while. For years we fought alone.

Look at who is on our side today — all good and decent people. The President of the United States. The Democratic nominee. A majority of the American public. Look at the rallies, look at the vigils, look at the outpouring of love, sympathy, and support. Don’t look at the killer. Don’t look at the haters. Don't look at the vile comments left by shit people on Twitter and Facebook. Look at the good. Look at the love. Look at the good and loving people inside and outside the LGBT community and take strength from their love and support.

Then get out there and fight.

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