I decided to tell everyone else in my life. Everyone’s reactions were different. My boyfriend cried, fearful that suddenly he wouldn’t be enough for me. My best friend bought me a rainbow flag for my car. Others simply said, “I knew it. You suck at keeping secrets.” The only people I haven’t told is my family. My family believes in equality for all, but they make crass gay jokes that make me feel uncomfortable to tell them the truth.

It was then that I realized my real family wasn’t a group of people who made hurtful comments. My real family was my friends who don’t mind if I make comments on cute girls walking by and my boyfriend who helped me work through my emotions as I helped him understand that being bisexual didn’t mean I was leaving him for a girl. I’m 20 years old now and working my way through college to become a special educations teacher. Coming out was the best thing I’ve ever done.

I work as a case manager for a program in NYC called HASA. It’s a city agency that provides case management and financial assistance, among other things, to low income adults and children with HIV. On my caseload there are men and women from 19 to 70 who are struggling to live their lives with HIV. Some of my younger clients have spent time on the streets and there are many who left home at a young age because of discrimination and abuse directly related to their gender or their sexuality.

So I am for equality wholeheartedly. I joined today because I completely agree with Cyndi that people need to know that there are children who need a lot of help. I believe that parents of children who are dealing with issues of gender and sexuality also need help to better address the needs of their LGBTQ children.

Give a Damn Campaign founder Cyndi Lauper wanted to share with you one of the reasons why she cares. It is an issue that has not received enough attention and resources. It is gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth experiencing homelessness.

In honor of National Coming Out Day, the Huffington Post posted an Op-Ed she wrote about why she gives a damn about helping these brave young people. Here is just the start of what she had to say:

Twenty to 40 percent of homeless youth identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, yet only 3 to 5 percent of the general population does the same. Shock was the first thing I felt when I heard this statistic, and then sadness that there are so many young people who are either thrown out of their homes or run away out of fear and despair because they are gay or transgender.

But, while the disproportionate numbers are disheartening, what really matters and makes a significant impact are the young people themselves, their struggles and their desire to live a life that they dream about and deserve to live…

Please take a moment to read her story and take action yourself. Share the post with your family and friends on Facebook and Twitter, or just forward this email, so they can get informed and get involved as well.

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• Read Cyndi’s Op-Ed
• Learn more about Youth | Homelessness

If we all join together we can make a difference.

Today is National Coming Out Day!! Let the people in your life know that you are a supporter – straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender – of equality by donating your Facebook status. It is easy, our friends at the Human Rights Campaign have a very easy to use App to help you out.

Donate your Status

Share why gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender equality is important to you today by raising awareness on National Coming Out Day. Your courage to speak out – today and every day of the year – can spark countless conversations about equality and help change hearts and minds.

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• Donate your Facebook status

ABC News tells his story and interviewed him this morning:

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• Learn more about Family Acceptance

The following is a powerful video posted by a soldier who came out to his father today, on the day that the ban on gays in the military – “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” – came to an end.

We thank him for sharing this personal and heartwarming experience with us all as a beautiful example of what family acceptance is all about.

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• Learn more about Family Acceptance

I didn’t believe that men should have these “feelings of inappropriate love” towards other men and the same with women. I knew that if I could squelch my own personal crushes for boys in High School and Jr. High, that a gay man or woman could and should, do the same.

I trusted what my parents taught me was correct, because I thought true happiness started with a marriage between one man and one woman, in a sacred ceremony. I was so adamant about my stand on gay marriage that I lost touch with close friends who didn’t feel the same way I did.

I didn’t realize I had lost touch with so many friends due to my perspective on the matter. It was not until years later when I ran into an old friend from college who told me the way he felt over my rants in regards to the LGBT community. I was surprised and humbled over his admission and complete candor to my utter disregard to the way he may have felt, we were very good friends in college.

In order to restore a semblance of peace among my other friends that I was still in touch with, I stopped conveying what I felt was wrong. It was because I was beginning to realize that I may be the one who was in the wrong.

By this time I had finally moved to Las Vegas to be with my daughter’s father, I had fallen in love. And though I grew up also believing that I would never fall in love or even find someone who was a tad bit quirkier than I was, I did. This was one more perspective that changed as I got older.

In the years that I lived in Las Vegas, I met close friends and people who have changed my life. These friends that I still have today are some of the most thoughtful and kind people that I know. Knowing the details of their own relationships and the fact that all of the rights that would be afforded to my boyfriend and I, had we decided to get married were denied to them.

While in Vegas, I learned that my younger brother was also gay. He and I were so close while we were growing up. He was always so delicate, and I felt as though I needed to step in and protect him from the kids in our family and society at large because of his disposition.

I never wanted to admit to myself that he was gay, I didn’t really want to know. I thought if I just ignored what everyone we both knew said was “so obvious”, that I wouldn’t have to deal with it. My brother told me the same thing when he finally admitted to me that he is gay. He told me that he didn’t want to disappoint me because I was against gay marriage and that I thought everyone had a choice to be straight.

I adamantly told him that regardless of his sexual orientation, that he is and will always be my brother. But, it bothered me that he felt the way he did about my lack of concern. I also found out that my younger sister was also gay and that she never really wanted to share with me her ideas for fear of the same type of rejection.

I know that my siblings love me, and they know that I love them. I knew I was wrong. I knew it because I taught the principles that stated that “God/Heavenly Father, knows that some of us have those feelings of love for the same gender, but…they still have to fight it…because it’s wrong.”

It was so blatantly obvious to me that what I felt while I was growing up was inherently wrong. It is still so blatantly wrong to admit that if you believe in God and that God would purposely put us here to make us miserable. I cannot imagine a God that would give one man or woman those feelings and then send them to hell if they act upon those feelings. He gave me feelings for men, and I am able to find a man to marry and I’ll go heaven. The reasoning never made any sense to me. It still doesn’t.

I realized that my narrow view of love, was skewed to meet someone else’s perception of what is right in the eyes of a God who I still believe in. What has changed is the belief that if God is love, he loves all of us, and wants what is best for us. This is the God I know, he loves us, and is willing to accept that men and women who are LGBT should have the rights to raise a family in a marriage that completes them.

I now believe that my siblings and everyone in the LGBT community should be afforded the same rights that I will be afforded when I am married. I believe that God is love, and his love is unconditional. If our communities exercised the same unconditional love, we may not have such a hard time accepting another point of view. It took me losing friends and nearly losing sight of my love for my own family to understand that everyone should have the same rights. Everyone.

I believe that in this life, we only get one chance at happiness, and we can magnify this happiness when we allow everyone their right to choose their mate, and afford them the same rights straight married couples have now. It’s a simple solution to what our society has made a complex problem: unconditional love. I love my siblings regardless of their lifestyle. I want for them what I can have for myself, marriage: with all the advantages, drawbacks and blessings that come with that certificate.

I wanted to join Give A Damn, because I care, I Give MORE than A Damn. In my attempt to help even one other person realize that it is not our own personal views that should stand in the way of the way another views love and marriage. I don’t want to make it an excuse to hide behind the view that God says this or God says that…I know that’s not true, because God is love.

In the new issue of V Magazine, Oscar winner Kate Winslet shares how it makes no difference to her if her son is straight or gay. We applaud Kate for being such a wonderful role model and parent. Here is an excerpt from her interview:

“I like the diversity that my children are exposed to every day. I love the way their brains work. Joe [her son] turns to me the other day and says, ‘One day, I will have a girlfriend. But I might have a boyfriend. If I’m gay.’ He’s 7! And I said, ‘You might have a girlfriend or a boyfriend, darling.’ And he said, ‘Which would you prefer?’ And I said, ‘My love, that would be entirely up to you, and it doesn’t make any difference to me.’ But that he knows! It’s a real privilege. Talk about the best education.”

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• Learn more about Family Acceptance

I told my therapist what they said to me and he told the supervisor at Families & Youth Inc. who had a talk with my foster parents. My foster mom came home telling me she has lost a lot of feeling for me and any kids who say negative things about her. She said she will refrain from taking me out to places and she did for a long time. They made up an excuse that I seem too depressed to bother going out.

On my way out of the foster home, my foster mom gave my mom a note telling her that I was gay. I snatched it from her hand, crumbled it up, and threw it in the street before getting in the car back home. My foster parents didn’t even say bye. All I wanted was somebody to love me for who I am.

I’m sharing my story to let other people know, whoever is experiencing the same thing, that you’re not alone.

A couple of months ago I invited my partner to sleep over because we had an exam to study for, which required more than just a few hours of studying. Everything was normal until my mom and my brother came home from work and my mom suddenly called me to the other room to talk.

She immediately asked me who I was with. Out of nervousness, I told her that she was just a friend who tutors me [which is also true]. Then my mom told me how she and my brother tolerate gay people just as long as it’s not one of the family. They told me “being gay is not in our genes” and my mom said she would not tolerate me being a lesbian.

What hurts more is when she said that my “friend” could just be into me because of our financial status. She said I could be easily manipulated into falling in love because the probability of finding a lesbian partner is unlikely so my partner could just be using this feeling to her advantage–which I think is impossible because my partner is actually two years older than me, works at a well-known international company, and even pays for her own college tuition.

It hurts because this is coming from the people whom you loved first. This is coming from the people who told me to love each member of the family regardless of their attitude problems. I don’t hate them. In fact, the reason why it hurts is because I love them, and as much as I want to run away because they’ll basically hate me if I ever come out to them, I still can’t because I love my mom too much to make her worry.

And lastly, it hurts because even my family can’t see that WE are just like everybody else. We’re humans, we have feelings too. It’s just that we’re not attracted to the opposite sex. I just wish my family would realize that.