Dear President,

LGBTQ bullying should be taken seriously. Most LGBTQ teens are bullied in school. When teenagers witness this they tend to not become true to theirself. LGBTQ teens face more abuse,violence, etc. They aren’t treated like humans,they’re treated like dolls. They are played with, controlled and forced out of their comfort zone. Plus they can’t do the things they want to do. They’re stuck. Legalizing gay marriage was a big step for the U.S and the LGBT community. It was like a big step to freedom for the lgbtq community.

“As a community, LGBTQ people face higher rates of poverty, stigma, and marginalization, which put us at greater risk for sexual assault. We also face higher rates of hate-motivated violence, which can often take the form of sexual assault. Moreover, the ways in which society both hypersexualizes LGBTQ people and stigmatizes our relationships can lead to intimate partner violence that stems from internalized homophobia and shame” (www.hrc.org).

According to that site and the New York Times article shows statistics of how many and how much more lgbt people are facing violence than heterosexual people. Even compared to minorities, the lgbt community is is still aimed at for hate crimes.

“44 percent of lesbians and 61 percent of bisexual women experience rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner, compared to 35 percent of heterosexual women

26 percent of gay men and 37 percent of bisexual men experience rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner, compared to 29 percent of heterosexual men

46 percent of bisexual women have been raped, compared to 17 percent of heterosexual women and 13 percent of lesbians

22 percent of bisexual women have been raped by an intimate partner, compared to 9 percent of heterosexual women

40 percent of gay men and 47 percent of bisexual men have experienced sexual violence other than rape, compared to 21 percent of heterosexual men” (www.hrc.org).

This data shows that the violence isn’t just by rape and not only one specific group in the lgbtq community. Rape cases aren’t taken seriously by the police, nothing is anymore. Man or woman, whether gay or not, should not be treated like this. Rape should be taken seriously.

Rape isn’t the only hate crime that involves lgbtq. The Orlando hate crime was a dangerous act. Many lgbt people were traumatized and many families were left in devastation.

“Nearly a fifth of the 5,462 so-called single-bias hate crimes reported to the F.B.I. in 2014 were because of the target’s sexual orientation, or, in some cases, their perceived orientation.” (nytimes.com).

Not only are lgbtq people targeted but people who look “gay” are also targeted. How does one person look gay? Gay is not a person, it’s a sexual preference.

Many LGBTQ people are discriminated because of their sexual preference. Even though their sexual preference is not allowed in a religion it does not mean that they should be treated differently than others. Even though your religion doesn’t allow that , it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t happen. They are still human.

Sincerely,

Pangzao Thao