Since the shooting, I’ve watched the “you vs. me,” the demonizing, the victim-playing. The shutting down of any conversation that might reveal the truth:

Humans aren’t light or dark. Republican or Democrat. Sinner or saint.

We’re both/and. Messy. Complex. Human.

When I came out in the Deep South, I carried fear and shame everywhere I went. And yet—it taught me something uncomfortable but real:

Someone can love me deeply.

And believe my life is morally wrong.

And vote in ways that threaten my rights.

All of that can be true.

That’s why the hardest, most world-changing work isn’t calling them out. It’s doing the brutal work of examining and evolving ourselves.

Because when we let people know us—really know us—we give them the chance to love us.

And if not love us? At least fear us less as “the other.”