Anthony Ajello

West Milford Twp. High School

67 Highlander Drive

West Milford, NJ 07421

November 3, 2016

Future President at the White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

Washington, DC 20500

Dear Future President:

My name is Anthony Ajello, and I currently attend West Milford High School as a freshman. For a while I have been hearing of the issue of LGBT+ oppression and hate crimes and it seems that nothing has been being done about this issue. I have wanted to make my voice heard about this issue, but never had the opportunity or knew how to even start and now I have that chance.

Since the beginning of time, members of the LGBT community has been silenced, and it is just now that they are getting rights and recognition, but we need to push further. This isn’t just an issue in America, it is also an issue in many, many other countries. The severity of this in America is not as bad as some middle-eastern countries, but it still needs to be fixed, and addressed. There is no reason why people shouldn’t be treated as people.

A mob in Nigeria drags four men, thought to be homosexual, out of their homes to beat them with iron bars and sticks. Instead of stopping the violence, the police aided the mob in the beating of these men. That is just one example of a cause of this problem, countries that criminalize homosexuality. Countries, at one point for example, Russia, would put up propaganda billboards and posters that instigated the hatred of homosexuality. Another cause of this problem is conservatives, mostly concentrated in the south of the USA. There have been incidents in places like Texas where “packs” of men will go out to “hunt down” homosexual men and beat them almost to death. This is a very big problem, America is supposed to be a place where you can be free to be yourself, but apparently, to some things, that’s not true. Another big part of this is government officials stuck on this thought that LGBT members are not functioning members of society.

The effects of this hate can have catastrophic on people. This mostly affects the members of the LGBT community. The hate can lead to deep depression and ultimately lead to suicide. 85% of suicides in America are LGBT related, whether it was getting bullied at school, or being rejected, and kicked out by their parents and family. The hate can also affect sports players. If there is a gay football player, all the other teammates might feel uncomfortable, and make comments, also making the gay player feel uncomfortable possibly making him quit, or play worse. The problem can also affect straight people. Being thought of as gay or being revealed as gay can trigger a fear response in teens that can lead to lashing out, depression, and in the worse case, suicide.

There are many varying perspectives on this topic. There is the victim's perspective, being harassed, told you shouldn’t be alive because of who you like. People from this perspective know who they like, they know how it feels, and they feel like a regular person, but society can make them feel like nothing. There is also the perspective of the antagonist. They feel like they are doing the right thing by breaking these people down. They ultimately feel like they are doing the right thing and being the bigger person. Then there’s the people who stand by, they don’t take a side and they don’t want to get in the way. These are the people who need to step up, see what’s wrong, and stop what is happening. There have already been many laws and rules made in schools and states to protect people from saying hurtful thing, but jit still doesn’t stop them, and it’s mostly from government officials thinking that they are making the country better. But these people who are speaking up against these people don’t need to be silenced, but they need to be censored. Hurtful words should not be used anymore It is time for change.

What I hope you will do as the next president of the United States, is fix these problems that have arose. Take this country from being a hateful, and hurtful place, to a place of acceptance. Thank you in advance for taking your time to read this letter and paying attention to this matter.

Sincerely

Anthony Ajello

Student, West Milford High School