'Dear Santa, do you support the LGBTQ community?' writes boy, asks if God loves him for being gay

With Christmas just around the corner (can you believe it's almost December already?!), kids once again find themselves trying to determine whether they fall into the naughty or nice category. Will they find a gift under the tree on Christmas morning or will there be a piece of coal in their stocking? If it were up to me, I'd say every kid — irrespective of how mischievous or unruly they've been — deserves a gift this year for having been through everything the pandemic put them through. However, thanks to the many misconceptions and prejudices thriving in our society even today, one little boy named Will couldn't shake the feeling that Santa and God might not love him.

A heartfelt letter written by the youngster is now going viral on social media and tugging at the heartstrings of netizens. In the letter addressed to Santa, Will opens up about something very close to his heart and asks the big man in red whether he supports the LGBTQIAP+ community. "Dear Santa," the letter begins in the messy scrawl of a school-age child. "Do you support the LGBTQ community and if you can speak to God, can you tell him I love him, and if he loves me for being gay?"

The little boy signs off politely, writing: "Thank you. Love, Will." According to Daily Mail, the youngster appears to have mailed the letter to the North Pole which was then intercepted by the USPS as part of its Operation Santa initiative. "The United States Postal Service is responsible for the nation’s letters. Thousands are sent to Santa and the North Pole each year. The mission of the USPS Operation Santa program is to answer these letters," states the Operation Santa website. "Anyone in the United States can write a letter to Santa, no matter their religion or denomination."

The initiative began in 1912 when Postmaster General Frank Hitchcock created Santa's first mailroom by authorizing local postmasters to open up these letters for employees to read and respond. It was digitized in 2017 to get more people involved by "adopting" a child's letter from the website and fulfill Christmas wishes — which could be for anything from toys to basic necessities. Will's letter appears to have been first spotted on the website by Twitter user Nancy Cruz-Garcia who shared it on the social media platform writing: "This letter to Santa broke my heart."

Thousands responded to the tweet with words of encouragement and support for Will. Many reminded parents that it's their responsibility to make their kids feel loved irrespective of the label they choose to identify with. Meanwhile, several others slammed conservatives for pushing anti-LGBTQ agenda and putting children like Will through years of emotional anguish. "That is the most heartbreaking thing. And the worst part is that if this kid is asking this, then there is a huge chance they might not be receiving the love they need," wrote Twitter user @AGramuglia.

"It absolutely kills me that our society, at any time at all, and especially still present day, could engrain this awful thought in anyone’s mind," tweeted @hulkmeow. "Being a queer kid is so difficult. I hope this little boy knows that God does love him no matter what," wrote Twitter user @aLilBitWrOng_ while another user, @sleepymathgrl, tweeted: "I wish we could respond and tell will there is a whole community ready to affirm how much God loves him exactly how he is."