Love Makes the World Go Round

Shresta Nibhanupudi (she/her)

Editorial Team Member

Please don’t have children. I am serious. Please don’t have children if you can’t love them unconditionally. If the mere thought of another person, not even your child, being gay sends you into an immeasurable anger, please just don’t have children. If you can’t look upon an interracial marriage in happiness, please abstain from trying for a child. If you can’t coexist with the peers around you without looking at some of them in disgust and shame, then please aspire to be childless. Because one day, one of those people you make fun of everyday or simply look at their existence in horrific anger may be your child. And if you don’t allow the people around you to exist, then I am terrified for what lies in store for your own child. 

Every single person on this planet is in search of love: it may not always be romantic but just simple love. Yet instead of uniting on that pursuit, we decide to put our love into boxes to separate us from one another: romantic, platonic, gay, straight, interracial, self-love, parental love. While we create those boxes, we decide the stereotypes and ways in which to define each. We start to develop an ideal of what each type of love must look like. Then we proceed to take those ideals and decide which type of love is acceptable. We used to decide that gay love is much too weird, but now we’ve progressed slightly. So now, gay love between two white people is okay, but if it’s between two people of color–that’s now pushing it. We have created so many love standards for ourselves that it’s impossible to actually find love that fits within that box. 

With pride month being June, I wanted to discuss this particular topic because we are in an era of moving backward. Congress is actively trying to take away gay marriage as we’re approaching the eleventh anniversary of its ratification. And currently, there is a large social conservative push against gay rights in general. Love makes the world go round. Every single person seeks it. But instead of celebrating that pursuit, as widespread as it is, we belittle and shame our fellow human beings for trying to be happy. So next time you look upon a happy couple in disgust, re-evaluate and remind yourself that they are simply trying to find love, just as we all are.