**This is one of three posts I pulled off my old blog**

Today, everywhere I went, I saw wonderful sights. Purple, in all shades of lilac, violet, magenta, and every other kind of purple that you can possible imagine. I went to get something from my best friend at work and she was wearing a purple blouse. I ran into a young teen from my church and she was wearing a purple T-shirt. I showed up at my theological college and many of my classmates were wearing purple. I returned home and facebook was covered in purple user pictures. For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, today was designated as the day to wear purple to raise awareness about homophobic bullying. And from what I could see, the idea managed to go viral. 

Now, I'll be the first to admit that I was shocked at the number of people from all different parts of my life who supported it. Even the people I'd least expect atleast had purple user pictures. Looking at facebook tonight I felt loved and respected. There was a picture posted from the worship service at Emmanuel College today with everyone in purple. Beautiful. But I still have to wonder, what did we gain from today?

Raising awareness yes. If that was the goal, then I'd say it succeeded, but what happens tomorrow? When user pictures go back to summer vacation pics, purple shirts get thrown in the laundry, and queer people are still being bullied. Will this have created any momentum? Will anything change?

Despite the medias attention on recent gay youth suicides, it isn't anything new. You ask any queer person and most likely they'll be ably share atleast one story of a queer or trans person they knew who ended their own life. I can easily count a few personal acquaintences who killed themselves.

The sad new is, the bullying is still happening, "wear a purple shirt day" or not. In fact, just today a friend of mine was on the recieving end of some transphobic slurs hurled at them. 

So my question to all the purple supporters, is what are you going to do to put an end to the bullying? How far are you actually willing to go to ensure that no more lives are lost? Teachers, are you willing to have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to bullying? Students, are you ready to take a stand when your friends say things like "that's so gay"? Church-goers, are you going to truly embrace and celebrate all of Gods people? Parents, are you going to love your queer and trans kids fiercly and fight for them? Before you wear purple again, ask yourself, what are you willing to give up?