For years, people of different sexuality, besides straight, have been looked down upon, accused, hurt, attacked for just being who they are, and nobody has yet to make a complete stop to this.

America might be known as the ' land of the free,' but why are so many people being discriminated against for having an opinion, for being themselves?

Sexualities, Genders, Races, and other attributes that seem to define who you are, are being made fun of, bullied, and judged; now kids are afraid of being themselves and as they grow up they are never able to truly open up.

This needs to be stopped now.

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To help the lives of the LGBTQ+ community, at an early age, means that more people need to support them and help them become truly themselves. If, for example, the movie industry portrayed more stories that represent the lives of Queer people, kids would feel more seen and accepted. When Celebrities speak openly about their sexuality, that too can encourage kids to open up and own their identity.

However, this would not solve the issue completely as there are still too many restrictions on the LGBTQ+ community.

One reason for the struggle to be part of the LGBTQ+ community is that there is no federal law that says that you cannot fire and/or refuse someone a job, on the basis of sexual orientation. This means that you can be fired just because you are gay, and there is no law that stops this from happening.

One way to change this is to make a law that states that there should be no discrimination for being yourself and there should be clear consequences for those who do. This discriminating behavior can be stopped with support from our city, states, and countries.

The reason why there is such a struggle for this community is that so many people are using hate to their advantage. Putting out their worries and anger to a person that is not the same as them.

Big businesses, like the U.S military, used their power to discriminate against anybody that is gay or lesbian.

We have states that have tried to block lesbians and gays from being themselves and tried to make a law to stop LGBTQ people from existing.

Parents lose custody of their children just because they are gay; leaving a poor, young child out in the world alone, and parents scared and worried about what can happen to their child.

In some cases, some parents don't want anything to do with their child once they find out they're not heterosexual.

This is no way to treat a child.

There are at least 69 countries that have banned people to get married to somebody of the same sex as them.

But luckily, this is changing, we have many countries now in 2021 that allow same-sex marriage.

But in my opinion, you shouldn't have to ask the state or country the permission to marry a person of the same sex. If you love someone, you should be free to marry whom you love if you truly want to.

At a young age, children go to school - which should be a safe place to grow- but children are being bullied and excluded instead.

This creates a lot of anxiety for the kids, who'd rather not go through this and then decide to leave, keeping them from getting an education.

Teachers and students lack means of protection toward LGBTQ students. Being taught at a young age that they are not 'worth it' and that they are ' bad people,' and should be ' ashamed,' will affect how they treat themselves.

Receiving this kind of hatred this way can easily lead to deep depression and suicide.

When no human should be told this, for just being themselves. And because kids are taught this at an early age, they close up, not showing their beautiful selves to the world and worst of all, not showing their true selves to themselves. The kids close up and are not able to do the things they truly love because they have been told that their voices, their opinions, and thoughts, don't matter.

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Did you know that there are actually states that have laws not to talk/teach about the way LGBTQ people are being treated at school?

Alabama, Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, and Utah are states that have laws restricting teachers and staff from talking about LGBTQ issues at school.

Thankfully we still have way more states that instead prohibit bullying against sexual orientation instead of excluding the LGBTQ people.

Kevin., a 17-year-old transgender from Utah said, "I've been shoved into lockers, and sometimes people will just push up on me to check if I have boobs,"

And when he told his administrators about this, he was dismissed for being "so open about it."

In some situations, teachers themselves would mock the students that were part of the community.

Lynette G., the mother of a young girl with a gay father in South Dakota, recalled that when her daughter was eight, "she ran home because they were teasing her. Like, 'Oh, your dad is a cocksucker, a faggot, he sucks dick.' ... She saw a teacher laughing which traumatized her even worse."

Miley D., a 17-year-old bisexual girl in Alabama, suggested: "Online, if you're open about anything about yourself, you're prone to be bullied. And if you're LGBTQ, it's 10 times worse."

Many students would take their anonymous apps to be an opportunity to target/harass their LGBTQ peers.

Eliza H., an 18-year-old bisexual woman in Alabama, recalled: "I was cyberbullied by a few of the guys on the football team because they found out I liked girls ... they kept making fake accounts and saying things over and over."

One reason this needs to stop is that it is scary to be harassed and abused in general, but being abused for being part of the LGBTQ community can scare kids even more because, this bullying can make them not want to be themselves. Knowing that they are being abused just for being there, showing themselves out to the world, can cause kids to be less secure of who they are and will try to be something else.

This is plain out wrong!

Another factor that happens for being in the LGBTQ community is that women that are gay or bisexual, are being used as sex objects or being sexually harassed by their straight male peers, and this doesn't happen as much to the boys. This is also a sign of sexism which is a way of discriminating against another for being of a certain gender/sex.

Bianca L., a 16-year-old girl in Alabama, explained: "I'm bisexual, and every time I come out to a guy, it's always, 'Can I see you make out with a girl, or want a threesome?'"

This is no way to treat a human, especially to ask such stupid and somewhat personal questions.

Catherine G., a 17-year-old asexual girl in Alabama, said: "I started identifying as asexual last year, and all of a sudden everybody wants to be in my pants. I'm a challenge now."

We need to stop this harassment and start teaching boys to control their hormones and to stop harassing women for being a girl or for just not wanting to have sex.

We need to stop discriminating lives, now!

It all starts now.

I believe that all lives should be cared for and cherished no matter what sexuality you are. It is our life and we should live it the way we truly want it to be.

Stop harassing, discriminating, and attacking the LGBTQ+ community and others.

We need to teach families and children at a very young age to support one another. There needs to be a support system for families and children, implemented in society, at home, in schools, and at work, to eradicate this problem.

We need to start today!

Citations I used:

~Citation 1

"The Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender People." American Civil Liberties Union, 1 Apr. 2021, .

~Citation 2

"'Like Walking Through a Hailstorm.'" Human Rights Watch, 27 May 2020, .

The picture above is made by me, please do not use it, and if you do please credit me & ask me to use it and say in your work, that it is from me. Also, the Quote is made by me... please do not steal my words, unless I say you can use them.✌️

❤️🧡💛💚💙💜~ support lives!!!!