David has been my best friend since eighth grade. He has helped me through countless breakups and heartbreaks, supported me while I cried, and cared for me when I needed a friend. My mother will tell you he's like the son she never had, and my friends will tell you it's amazing how, after six years of being best friends, we haven't been able to find a way to kill each other. A few years ago, David nervously told me he was gay. He has been raised in church his whole life, his parents are openly “anti-gay” and so David is forced into a life of secrecy. It's been a struggle, but David has embraced who he is, and his partner of three years has also become one of my closest friends. Last month, David's parents announced they would start their own church. When my parents asked them what made them leave their current church, they responded by saying that their church had decided to allow a homosexual to be a priest, and seeing how this was “an abomination to God,” they thought that it was unwise to stay in a church “that allows these types of people to enter.” Since then, David and I have had endless discussions about what he would do. After all, to the rest of the world, he is an openly gay man. She still lives with her parents, goes to school full time, and still manages to maintain a relationship with the same man for the past three years. I don't like the conclusion David is forced to reach. I want more than anything for his parents to love and accept him for who he is, their son, regardless of the technical aspects of his life. But David has decided that, even in his twenties, he can never tell his parents what he is without the risk of them disowning him... middle of paper... an abused girl at home. David, Maria and Kelly all come from different situations, but they are connected by the fact that they want one thing: love and acceptance. I wish more than ever that the world wasn't such a cruel place; where children are not teased and bullied at school because they are "different", where parents accept their children's choices even though they may not agree, where parents do not act violently towards their loved ones causing harm, and where young adults like Kelly don't resort to alcohol, drugs and self-mutilation to escape the pain they experience every day. But wishing only hurts the heart, and we soon realize that we are not lucky enough to live in such a place. The love of a child is so pure and I just can't understand how, between then and now, we as a society have lost that love for each other.