My parents encouraged me to go to college and helped me a bit financially, but I also know what it’s like to work a grimy, minimum-wage job slinging fast food at a third-rate amusement park. It’s not the same as being completely responsible for putting myself through college, but it’s a start. I’m not gay or transgender, and I don’t know what it’s like to be denied permission to have a lifelong relationship with the one person in this whole wide world who wholly loves me for who I am. But I know what it’s like to think I belong, only to be betrayed by people I thought accepted me. It’s not the same, but it’s a start.