Hate is fear; fear is the absence of love! Within your Self, when you judge and hate you are not able to feel love. You may think that your hate and judgment are about the other person or group of people but it is only happening inside you. You are the one living with the hate, rage, anger, and heavy density. It clutters your mind and shadows your heart. Consequently, you are the only one who ends up suffering until, of course, your anger causes harm to others.

We are given this life and we were given free will. Free will says you have the right to live with your hate, anger, rage, and judgment. Free will also allows people to live in harmony, love, unity and peace. Free will gives each of us the opportunity to live this life as we choose. What it does not do is support the destruction of the free will and the rights of another human being.

You are not born with fear and anger or any of the fear-based emotions. You are not born with judgment since judgment comes from fear. You learned all of that, and the beliefs associated with them, in this lifetime. You thought you had to believe as you were taught to believe. But now you have a choice. Do you want to live with love for you, from you, and for others? Or do you want to live in absence of love? Do you want a life filled with pain, suffering, anger, and heat or a life filled with love and happiness?

Can you be grateful for who you are at the same time you’re hating another? The answer is no. So, yes, it is your right to hate, judge, and be angry. It is your choice to live at that level of suffering. Just remember suffering begets suffering and fear begets fear. It is love that begets gratitude, joy, and love. So, I ask you which do you prefer? And be clear, because even if you were feeling anger and hate at those who are angry and hateful you are feeding the darkness not light.

May each and every one of you be graced with gratitude, forgiveness, and love.

I had the honor of being interviewed by The Palm Beach Post this week for an article regarding Bruce Jenner and transgender issues.

Many people in this country are on standby waiting for Bruce Jenner to announce to Diane Sawyer “something”! We truly don’t know what! The assumptions running rampant are all saying he’s going to announce his transformation from a male body to a female body. The transformation would identify him as a transgender person or as a person having Gender Dysphoria. My greatest concern (after the fact that our media is anchored in assumption rather than fact) is the amount of judgment that will come from those who do not understand what transgender means and is.

We all dream of being unconditionally accepted. In order to be accepted we must be understood. So let me try to help everyone understand a bit about the person who is transgender and then maybe we can have more acceptance through our understanding and compassion.

Right now take a minute to feel that place inside you where you know you are a man or a woman. Feel this knowing inside you that has nothing to do with your reflection in the mirror. It is indescribable. It is simply a place deep inside where you just know you are a man or a woman, a girl or a boy.

Now, when you look at your physical body in a mirror there is a match. If you know you are a woman and you look in a mirror and you see a woman’s body, you feel a comfortable match. I’m not talking about your judgment about the way the body looks! I’m saying your knowingness of being female or male matches, and is confirmed by, the body!

Okay let’s take the next step! Now imagine you leave the mirror and go to your closet and pull out your clothes. If you are a man in a man’s body, you pull out men’s clothing and you have further comfort in the clothing as it rests on your body and further defines you as a man. Now, you go back to the mirror and feel ready to present your Self to others.

You now leave the house to go to your destination. As you enter, you say hello to the first person who you recognize and you hear your voice. And your voice is that of a man or a woman and it matches your clothing, which matches your body, which matches the knowing inside you that says you are a man or a woman, respectively.

I hope you’re starting to feel the depth of your gender and how it matches your body and your lifestyle. What happens for the transgender isn’t anything like what you just walked yourself through. The man feels like a woman on the inside knowing that she’s a woman on the inside but has the body of a man. The reflection in the mirror each and every time is a reflection of a man and that contradicts the knowingness of being a woman. The clothes on this body feel foreign and announce the foreign nature of the body within which this knowing of being a woman resides. Her voice, when she speaks, is that of a man and again confirms that she is not who she feels she is. She reaches for a glass and her hand is not the hand that matches the way she feels inside. There is no comfort or consistency in her experience of life.

How does the person who is transgender learn to accept their own self? How do they learn to be accepted by others when others will never know the truth of who they are on the inside. We don’t feel accepted because of how we look, or what we do, or by what others see. We feel accepted by others when they know who we are in truth, with all of our challenges and all of our strengths, all of our beauty and all of our differences.

So the transgender person lives without acceptance because no one knows, understands, or can accept them because who they are is kept hidden in a foreign body. How can there be acceptance when others don’t know that the transgender person is a different gender on the inside than what the body is displaying on the outside?

A transgender person is not a transvestite or cross dresser or enjoying a fetish. The latter three are choices people make for enjoyment, variation, and/or performance. The transgender person wears, and feels connected to, the clothes when they match the sex they know they are. This is not the same as being a drag queen or feeling sexually aroused by opposite sexed clothes.

A transgender person may feel at least disconnected from, if not repulsed by, their body and genitalia because of the mismatch. They prefer activities that are traditionally of the sex they know they are. Until the time the transgender person chooses to live in a body that matches who they are, they tend to feel very trapped, unknown, unseen, not to mention lonely and more.

So, let’s all do our best to help at least one person understand the person who suffers with Gender Dysphoria! Let’s help them find true acceptance in this life! Let’s remember that this is not a choice. Feel the compassion of the suffering of a fellow human being and help them feel the support of compassion and acceptance. Do not be afraid to ask questions to genuinely learn from the transgender person who you meet or know! There is no better way to show your acceptance and to gain comfort. And remember,

To read the Palm Beach Post story, click here.

I looked extensively for some reasoning behind the world participating in the Sochi Olympics given Russia’s new federal legislation that defines “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations” (being out as gay or supporting the LBGT community) as a crime. I can’t find anything that I can embrace. I looked hard. Hate, prejudice, bullying, persecution — none can be justified. So, how do we allow a perception of supporting or ignoring it by participating in the games?

I believe the suggestion to pull out of the Olympics is not intended to “punish” our athletes or destroy their dream to compete. The suggestion, I hope, is to protect our young athletes and those who they know and love. The danger is not limited to the athletes and their families. It includes all reporters, media staff, spectators and Olympic staff as potentially being seen as propagandizing the gay lifestyle. Sadly, it will take one person in, or associated with, the Olympics to get assaulted, bludgeoned, or killed and the entire world, outside of Russia, will feel the hurt. So, why not move the Olympics back to Vancouver, Canada!!!

What allows us to continue to imagine participation in Sochi? Is it that, as a world, we are not ready to stand strong and protect gay culture? Or, is it that we are afraid to go against Russia? Or, is it that life is just not as valuable as the money that will be grossed from participating in the games? Or, have we really created such a selfish mentality that our athletes would rather risk lives to compete than to stand strong in integrity and not?

All of these thoughts can increase anger because people feel helpless to create the change. It is as if the games will go on, regardless. In life, when anger is ignited, I ask what is behind it. What drives it? In this case, it is the helplessness that comes from not being able to stop the pain of being judged. Further, it is the pain of being judged in a way that does not allow the truth of the person to be known or seen. It is the rejection, condemnation, and destruction that comes as a result of those ill judgments. You do not need to be gay to feel those feelings. You do not need to be Jewish to feel those feelings. You need only to be human. Everyone feels that pain in this life at some point. Would you support someone judging your child that way? What does it take to grow beyond that “fear” of judgment? As an individual it takes a LOT! So, as a culture or world it takes a LOT more! If we allow our Selves to sit passively until there is reason to fight, it will ignite in all of us the rage that comes from that inner awareness of the pain of judgment. It is ugly rage. If, however, we are proactive rather than reactive and say we will not be a part of Russia’s abusive, criminal behavior, then we stay in front of our anger and prevent the hurt from being multiplied (not to mention, potentially save lives!!).

What stops people from standing strong and uniting? The anger we feel can unite us but for some reason doesn’t. Some of the interference in unity comes from the media. The media presents the information that ignites fear-based emotions in the people. Those emotions then cause fragmentation and do not promote belief in the unity that each person is a critical part in creating. There is no unity without YOU because you are the unit who makes it unity! As a people we need to stand strong individually so that the uniting can begin — one person at a time. Uniting in the name of love and acceptance — that’s The Spirit/God I believe exists.

One man started that process. Brian Burke, Director of Player Personnel for the US Olympic Hockey Team, had a gay son who came out in 2007 and was killed in an accident in 2010. As a tribute and honoring of his son, Brian has created a nonprofit organization for gay athletes. According to the Russian legislation, he is at risk to be arrested! This could be a place where we can begin, one person at a time, to unite with Brian and his efforts and to feel the circle of life seal itself around the world, on behalf of unity, freedom and safety. We can then push to the outside of that circle those who want to live in a state of hate and abuse. This is why I believe we must stand strong and refuse to participate in the 2014 Winter Olympics as long as they are in Sochi.

Click Here to support Brian Burke’s You Can Play Project

Click Here to sign the petition created by James Lavin to Strip Sochi of the 2014 Winter Games