When I hear you say, “don’t go down that way.

The boys dress like girls. Those people are gay.”

Well I don’t know what you mean, but I know you mean well. 

You’ve got a heart of gold, your intentions are swell.

But I feel like ya missed it, there’s something more here. 

You said the lights get dim and the people get weird.

But you didn’t specify why, didn’t cite your sources,

I bet you haven’t stopped and listened to their voices.

When’s the last time that you unlocked your Benz?

When did you try to step outside your group of friends?

Because you will never make it to places you refuse to go,

and you will never shake the hands of people you choose not to know. 

You said gay bars were nightmares and the west coast was hell,

You pulled people away, rang the warning bell. 

And maybe they thanked you, because they were scared too,

But if you were one of “the gays,” would you know what to do?

Would you know what it’s like on the other side?

Being all the colors in a world that’s never been colorblind?

For the People on Piedmont, Bourbon, and Boystown,

It’s not easy for them to hear that hateful noise now.

Because they had to hear it through high school,

and it was hard then too,

Still the ones that survived held on to the hope of something new,

Hope that maybe you’d come around,

hope that maybe you wouldn’t equate their dignity to the ground.

I said there’s nothing worse than being the leper outside the city walls,

Excommunicated because you refused to show love to all.

Now my challenge is this, please don’t take it lightly,

Open up your mind, I want you to see this rightly,

See with glasses that see people, not sexes, genders, fags,

Walk a mile in someone's shoes, but don’t run from rainbow flags.

To see through the eyes of someone else doesn’t mean you have to change yourself,

But it’s high time you took yo jar of empathy off yo dusty ass bookshelf.