Dear Mr/Madam President,

The lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community is a large group of citizens in the United States, as you know. Just like other minorities, though, they are persecuted by homophobic and transphobic people. This is unacceptable because American children should be raised in a country that loves people for who they are, and doesn’t make them be people they aren’t.

2015 was a great year for the LGBT community. Same-sex marriage was legalized and many couples who love each other were joined together in a religious and legal bond. However according to DoSomething.org, “80% of gay and lesbian youth report severe social isolation.” This startling statistic is saddening because even though the LGBT community takes great bounds, some aspects stay completely sedentary. Some people who think that same-sex marriage isn’t right will see this as a threat to their American values, and will project this hatred onto others. Or, in this case, teach it to their children who will isolate LGBT students.

Homophobia is a serious problem, and people can see that. Therefore, many studies have been opened to study the science of homophobia, rather than the science of homosexuality. One study, conducted by endocrinologist and medical sexologist Emmanuele Jannini at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, concluded that homophobic people tend to have more aggressive traits than accepting people. This study “revealed that people who have strongly negative views of gay people also have higher levels of psychoticism and inappropriate coping mechanisms than those who are accepting of homosexuality.” This means that homophobic people tend to have more aggressive, overly masculine, and even misogynistic personalities. While this doesn’t mean they are psychotic, this does show that they are harder to tolerate and have shorter fuses than an accepting person.

Jannini also says that “The study is opening a new research avenue where the real disease to study is homophobia.” This projects the idea that the questions citizens should ask themselves are “Why are people homophobic?” or “How can you tell if you are homophobic?” rather than “Why are people homosexual?” or “How can you tell if you are homosexual?” If people start asking themselves these questions, they may just find that they become more self-aware and allow us to find our personal flaws and fix them. Though, what some people may not understand is that homosexuality is not a problem, homophobia is.

Transphobia is another severe problem in the United States. According to journalists at Avocate.com, “In the first seven weeks of the year [2015], seven trans women were killed in the U.S.” 2015 had just started and there was already a rash of violence directed at transgender women. The transgender community suffers under the hand of ignorant people for no reason, and no attention is brought to this. Generally, hate crimes against religious groups are brought up largely in news however when hate crimes against a minority like the transgender community occur it does not get past local news.

Advocate.com also says that “21 transgender women were murdered in 2015 alone, most of them women of color… That exceeds the number of transgender women killed in the U.S in all of 2014…” however these numbers do not include cases that weren’t investigated or victims who were misgendered upon the discovery of their body. If anything should shed light on the darkness of our world, it should be this.

Some citizens, including Kansas State Senator Steve Fitzgerald, believe that transgender people have “disoriented” views of reality, according to The LA Times. This type of hate is brought on by ignorance because the American Psychiatric Association reclassified it as “gender dysphoria” rather than “gender identity disorder.” Another point that proves this is ignorant is the research done by authors at Mother Jones concluded that “this change to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders was intended to show that ‘being transgender is not a disease but a human variation—more like being left-handed than schizophrenic.’” So, if the population accepts and does not judge left-handed people, why can’t they do that with transgender people?

So to you, Future President, I am asking you personally for help. The time for anger and hatred is over, and the age of acceptance is just at the horizon. America needs your help with fixing the issue of homophobia for the betterment of society. Children in the United States need to be educated about gender identity and sexuality in schools across the country so that they can be open-minded and accepting of their LGBT peers. We can only accomplish this goal together, though. Please help schools in the United States educate their students on gender and sexuality so that we can eliminate hatred towards the LGBT community one student at a time.

Thank you for your time,

Maxx H.