Celebrities say they are being censored by TikTok after speaking out against ICE

Summary

Then seventh grade happened. My mom sat me down to say that, as a Christian , I wasn't supposed to date girls. And I, deeply concerned and extraordinarily literal, asked her whether that meant I could have gone to hell over the past 4 years without knowing it. She looked at me gently and didn't answer right away; she just asked for time to think because up until that moment, my queerness was still being interpreted as childhood innocence. She said I was made of love and therefore loved too much. Years later, when I developed a real crush on a girl in high school, I knew I needed to revisit the convo with mom. This girl and I both had boyfriends at the time, yet after Social Studies class, we'd 'randomly' meet at our cars and kiss, as if gravity were pulling us together; an unspoken chemistry crackled between us. I'd debate her in class about creationism vs evolution. She was science and I religion, like this cosmic Yin and Yang. When I told my mom I wanted to write her a Christmas card. I didn't know if that meant I was sinning cause I knew my words would be drenched in flirtation — like way too many feelings to call it a friendly Christmas card. My mom, the same mom who questioned whether seventh graders go to hell for a crush, said something that changed my life: "You can either be honest about your feelings or lie about them, and the Bible has a lot more to say about telling the truth than about getting butterflies." So from then on, I chose honesty. I chose truth. And my truth keeps unfolding. Since high school, I've met incredible people who don't neatly fit into some imagined binary. I've realized that the term that honours my lived experience most is pansexual. That my love isn't tied to someone's assigned sex or gender. My love is big, bold, and unbridled. It doesn't demand reciprocity or conformity. It inspires me and fuels my desire to grow. Love is my gift to myself as much as it is a gift to anyone else. Oh, and that girl from high school and I continued...