Let’s talk about the LGBTQ Community, I apologize to anyone in advance if this is offensive or too blunt but I feel that this is a topic that deserves attention, the LGBTQ community has suffered enough, let’s stop this, together.
The ‘It Gets Better’ (http://www.itgetsbetter.org/)series by The L/Studio presents various celebrities and people discussing their lives, and as the name suggests, how it got better for them. From Andrew Rannells, to Raven Symone, to RuPaul to Sir Ian Mckellen, the project aims to communicate to the LGBTQ youth around the world to inspire and create the reforms needed to make their lives so much more better.
In 2010, Dan Savage created a video with his partner in order to help teenagers facing harassment in response to the news of the many people taking their lives, or being harassed because of what they believe in and who they love. The project has since become an international movement with more than 50,000 user created video submissions viewed more than 50,000 times.
1 out of 2 transgender people attempt suicide by the age of 20.
85% of the LGBTQ community are subject to harassment and intimidation.
26% of LGBTQ say that their problems lie within the fact that their family does not accept them.
40% of the homeless youth identify as LGBTQ.
3 out of 4 transgender people experience sexual harassment and violence in school.
How many more statistics does the world need to be aware of this problem? Is it not obvious enough that people are hurting themselves because they aren’t accepted? Because they are bullied? They are harassed for who they are? Their families see their love as a phase?
The Orlando Nightclub Shooting, a hate crime, in January, killed 49 people and left 53 injured. People with families, people who loved and were loved, were murdered and were hurt. Why? Why was violence the answer? All of these people had lives, dreams, hopes… yet they were never able to fulfill any of these things because someone could not accept who they were, because someone hated who they were.
Leelah Alcorn, 17 years old, transgender – committed suicide in 2014. She posted a suicide note on her Tumblr, immediately blaming her parents. She states that her mother told her that it was a phase and that God does not make mistakes. The impact of these few words on her, will never be forgotten. The thing about words is that, they have the power to build someone or break someone, hence why we should be very careful with them. Leelah was only 17 and she felt compelled to remove herself from the world because she wasn’t accepted by her own family. Her mother states that she loved ‘him’ unconditionally, but unconditional love means accepting your child no matter what, that does not seem to be the case here.
Society is continuously contradicting itself when it states “Be yourself”. But what if yourself is someone that you have to hide for the sake of your well-being? It’s quite ironic isn’t it? It is understandable that there may be religious factors involved, but please, the imposition of those factors on others causes these statistics to increase. Is that really necessary?
I ask of you all, as the world’s new generation, to not make the same decisions that people have made before to torment someone because of who they love, to torment someone because of what they look like, to intimidate someone so much that they are afraid to step out of their bedroom. I ask you, to please, accept and love everyone.
The world is changing, but why is it that humanity seems to be at a standstill? Has history taught us nothing? We have the capability to change the world for the better, to end inequality for good, it’s time to stop thinking that one person can’t make a change because one person is all it takes for a movement, a change.
Post on Facebook, share a photo on Instagram, re-tweet, do whatever it takes and someone will hear you. Someone will support you. Sooner or later, before you realize it, you would have changed the world.
Before anything, we are human. Let’s act like it.
Support love, support equality.
