For many people, especially those in the blogging world, Glennon Melton is a household name. This woman is the creator of Momastery, an online community where hundreds of thosands of readers meet daily to read her heart-wrenching and hilarious essays, which cover topics such as marriage, motherhood, faith, addiction, recovery, and connection. Melton has been featured on several television and print outlets for her book Carry On, Warrior, as well as other publications. She is known for her honesty, open mind, and being a proud LGBTQ ally.

In October of 2010, Melton wrote a blog post about bullying-related suicides in schools. She noted that LGBT students are one of three supgroups that are more likely to face bullying, and she tried to come up with some ways that this issue could be addressed. At the end of her post, she wrote a letter to her son Chase, which included everything she would say to him if he were to come out, though she recognized that he is straight. In it she wrote:

And I don’t mean, Chase, that we would be tolerant of you and your sexuality. If our goal is to be tolerant of people who are different than we are, Chase, then we really are aiming quite low. Traffic jams are to be tolerated. People are to be celebrated. People, every person, Is Divine. And so there would be celebrating. Celebrating that you would be one step closer to matching your outsides with your insides, to being who you are. And there would be a teeny part of my heart that would leap at the realization that I would forever be the most important woman in your life. And then we would tell everyone. We would not concern ourselves too much with their reactions. There will always be party poopers, baby.

Melton also joined GLAAD and millions of others in speaking out against against bullying by going purple for Spirit Day in 2013. 

In a post yesterday, Melton expressed disgust at the fact that the Westboro Babtist Church is planning to picket Maya Angelou's funeral. In considering ways to deal with this, she talked about "interrupting the flow" and transforming "fear to love". For Melton, this means taking all the negative feelings she has toward WBC and transforming them into positive energy that can lead to something good. Luckily for us, she vowed to donate to GLAAD every time WBC appeared on her radar. While the teachings and actions of the church are reprehensible, and we would hate to see them picketing the funeral of a renowned civil rights activist, we are relieved that somewhere there is a silver lining on this dark situation, thanks to Glennon Melton! As Melton puts it:

I’ve learned that we cannot change the fact that fear will be released into the world again and again- but we DO have the power to convert that fear into love. As it flows into us, we must CHANGE it before we allow it  to flow back out to others. We must interrupt the flow. We have that power. And that’s my favorite kind of conversion –  Fear to Love. So last night I decided that every time WBC appears on my radar- I will immediately log on and donate to GLAAD. Because our job as peacemakers is to write a better story down here. “Westboro Baptist Church Pickets Funerals of Heroes” is a crappy story. “Studies Find That WBC Activity is Directly Related to Huge Increase in Donations to Groups Who Support Gays and Lesbians” is a better story. Fear transformed to Love is the BEST story. That’s power.