(I am female. My girlfriend picks up my teen niece from school and they meet me at my job everyday. On this day, my niece’s school has a “Pride Day”, so my niece is dressed in purple and has a rainbow-colored band around her upper arm. A customer has noticed.)

Customer: “Excuse me, young lady. Are you gay?”

My Niece: “No, ma’am. Why do you ask?”

Customer: “Because your band says ‘gay’ on it.”

My Niece: “Oh! It actually says ‘I support gays’. Today was Pride Day at my school. That’s also why my band is rainbow and I’m wearing so much purple.”

Customer: *very loudly* “You will go to Hell for telling people to sin! You are encouraging people to disobey God!”

My Niece: “To be honest, ma’am, I am an atheist. But my school’s principal is Christian and he announced the Pride Day.”

Customer: “You will burn in Hell! How does your family feel about you disobeying God’s word?”

My Niece: “Actually, my parents are okay with me being an atheist. Also, you see that lady over there who helped you?” *points to me* “She’s my aunt, and that woman there—” *points to my girlfriend* “—is her girlfriend, and they’ve been together for 14 years. They’re also Christians.”

Customer: “Heathens! Filthy, devil-worshipping heathens is what you all are! You will have to face God one day!”

(My niece has been smiling throughout this whole exchange, as if she’s completely unbothered by the customer’s comments.)

My Niece: “Ma’am, correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t Christians believe that God loves all His children? And isn’t Christianity about ‘loving thy neighbor’? If that’s true, why are you such a closed-minded, air-headed bigot who tries to use religion as a weapon? I think you are just using being Christian as a mask for your hatred. Unless what I’ve just said is false, I don’t think you know what it means to be Christian.”

(The customer was rendered speechless and stormed out the door, almost leaving her bags behind until my niece kindly reminded her.)