Dear President,

I want to inform you on what happens with the LGBT+ community and how you could help solve this issue. 

There are many hate crimes against this community and it affects many people. Individuals are dying because of their sexuality and what they identify as because people can't accept the fact that we are different or because they hate the idea of who we are. Bullying  happens because of students being different from others. Many people are discriminated because of their sexuality or identity and it needs to be stopped.

Pride Fest is something we enjoy very much. Sometimes people would go to them just to discriminate us and it makes us feel hated and unloved by the people we work with, go to school with, live with, and surround ourselves with. Random people shouting at us like we're monsters or aliens. " You deserve to die! " " God didn't make you like this! " " You are not welcome! " " You are poison to children! " All of these things have been shouted at us and we have hated every moment of it. 

Bullying. It happens everywhere, but what you don't know is that it is mainly because of sexual orientation or looks. " Federal civil rights laws do not cover harassment based on sexual orientation. Often, bullying towards LGBT youth targets their non-conformity to gender norms. " says stopbullying.gov . Bullying the LGBT community is more harsh because much more people are affected. Instead of just one person being bullied from time to time, it includes their families and other friends that are also apart of the community. Being bullied can cause depression, self harming, and suicide. This affects the community a lot. Many LGBT teens have depression and/or self harm. Some may have already committed suicide which is very sad because that is many, many people dying. What I want you to do is to have all schools have a strict rule against people harming or causing hurt to the LGBT community as a whole. If they have thoughts they should be told to keep it to themselves. It doesn't need to be spoken to a whole community that involves many people and many families.

Next there are hate crimes. Many people are targeted for hate crimes. Hate crimes are generally targeted towards a certain race or ethnicity. In 2014 most hate crimes were targeted towards the LGBT community. Many people have been killed just because of being married to the same sex or because they consider themselves apart of the community. Groups of people surrounding one person and then brutally murdering them just because of their sexual orientation isn't right. It became a want for some people to harass and eventually murder someone because they discriminate against them for being different. Being different was told to be embraced in primary school, yet when you classify yourself as someone completely different from another, many people hate you for it. Being different isn't a sin or wrong doing of any sort. Christians complaining that ' God didn't make us this way ' when really, if he didn't then why are we like this? It is our choice to be whoever we want to be and letting other people control you on your very own decisions hurts our self confidence. It's like saying you can't do anything for yourself because others are doing it for you. I wish for it to be hard to say anything against others and harming others until death. Praising a death of a person means you are a cold hearted person. Imagine having a person you love die because they made a decision that they wanted.

This was all and I hope you will help to improve our situation soon. Please think of something to help us and help everyone is this community. 

Thank you, Rayne Matmanivong

Park, Haeyoung and Mykhyalyshyn, Iaryna. L.G.B.T. People Are More Likely to Be Targets of Hate Crimes Than Any Other Minority, New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/06/16/us/hate-crimes-against-lgbt.html  Accessed 11/2/16

Bullying and LGBT Youth, Stop Bullying. https://www.stopbullying.gov/at-risk/groups/lgbt/index.html Accessed 11/8/16

Marzullo, Michelle A. and Libman, Alyn J.  Hate Crimes And Violence Against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender People, Human Rights Campaign. http://hrc-assets.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com//files/assets/resources/Hatecrimesandviolenceagainstlgbtpeople_2009.pdf Accessed 11/8/16