It's not easy being red

Wrote this over on Facebook, in response to some of the questions I was seeing about why people made their profile pics red and what the point of it all was. Thought it was as good as any a way to kick off my tenure here...

I thought to myself, why not? I'll make my little picture red, and do my little homo-solidarity thing regarding an issue that's important to me, and then on Thursday I'll swap it back over to the amusing cartoon of myself glaring and that will be that.
And then the day progressed, and I saw more and more red as I scrolled along my newsfeed, and I became more and more moved. 
Each time another "so-and-so changed her profile picture" showed up, I found myself getting emotional and near tears.
There's something that is nearly impossible to express in words; something that can only be felt and, unfortunately, seems to be connected closely to having experienced pain at some point. 
When you feel like you are all alone in the world, to see one other person across a crowd who looks like you can be a lifeline. 
When you feel like saying "sure, I know I'm okay, but I really wish I didn't have to fight all the time" and you hear someone else take up the fight for you, even if it's just once, that can feel like a boulder has been moved from off of your shoulders. 
When you have become so used to hearing hate that you tune it out; even if it's just a numb throbbing noise in the background it's still there. 
And to see the people you know, not even the people who you'd necessarily say you "love" but just the ones who make up your world, the ones who have just simply always been there, the ones who are happy to know you, stand up and say "look, I'm going to just put this here. Just to show that I care. That I got your back. That I might not get what it's like to have someone demonize me or wish me dead or treat me as less, but that doesn't matter, because I'm here" - that matters.
Seeing all of this red is amazing.
It isn't lost on me that this is also going on during Passover - when the red mark on a doorway meant that the inhabitants were safe, protected, not to be harmed.
I'm just so grateful. And I wanted to say thanks.