If your strongly held opinion means someone else doesn't get to define who they are for themselves...

...if it puts boundaries around something people need...

...please really sit with that, with why you think you need to draw that line for someone else.

Please try to come down on the side of "we respect one another's experiences and do our best to honor our differences."

Please give preference to "I might not love this, but my discomfort is not more important than someone else's safety."

Please use your energy constructively whenever you can. Save the vitriol for people making lives harder, making the world worse, doing harm.

Please understand we've been here before, almost no matter where "here" is, even if some of the words have changed, and that no good comes of holding the door closed behind you.

Please stop hurting each other. Ask yourself: will this thing I'm about to do make a vulnerable bystander more likely to give in to despair?

And don't do that thing if the answer is yes.

I'm literally begging you. Please stop excluding people. Please start listening.