Mr. or Mrs. President,

My name is Hannah Thomas, I am a student at Pacific Coast Charter School in California. I would like to discuss with you the topic of same-sex marriage. Since same sex marriage has been legalized in all of the United States there has been a lot of controversy on whether or not it was a good idea or not. I personally believe that it was the best thing America has ever done, considering the fact that I am bisexual and have many friends that are apart of the LGBTQ community.

Part of my family are very accepting of people who identify as a different gender or sexuality. Another part of my family (mostly my aunt) is not accepting at all. My mom and I recently went shopping with my two aunts and three cousins. I saw a shirt that said San Francisco on it and it had a rainbow flag, I liked the shirt and had asked my mom if she would get it for me. My aunt Holly immediately replied “If you want to get that shirt than that means that you're gay, and you’re not.” I replied saying that just because I liked a shirt that had the rainbow flag doesn’t mean I’m gay, I told her that maybe it means that I support people of the LGBTQ community. (she did not now what LGBTQ meant)

All over the country there have been protests by mostly religious groups about how gay marriage should be abolished, and how it is against the Bible. I am a Christian and am sometimes embarrassed to be so. When I hear (from other Christians) about how it is a sin to be gay and that they will not go to heaven, I just think to myself “who are they to say what is right and wrong with the world? They aren’t God, they have no authority to say who is a sinner and who isn’t, or who is and isn’t going to go to heaven or hell. Our only job as Christians is to love people, not matter who they are or who they identify as.”

Many other countries have legalized gay marriage such as: Argentina, Canada, France, Ireland, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, UK, etc. There have been many rallies and celebrations in different countries that are for the LGBTQ community, and in turn, there are people who go to rallies to protest against their own civil rights. On June 12, 2016 there was a gunman who shot over 50 people that were apart of a gay club in New Orleans. “On June 24, 1973, an arson fire ripped through the upstairs Lounge, a gay bar in the French Quarter of New Orleans. It killed 32 people and, until the Orlando nightclub shooting, it was the deadliest attack on the LGBT community in U.S. history.”- CNN.com

From 1969 to today there have been many cases on LGBTQ hate crimes that rank from singular shootings to mass murder. We still have not done anything about these hate crimes towards the LGBTQ community and I fear that they will never be resolved as long as we have hate in this world. If we were to teach other people about LGBTQ they would not have so much hate and ignorance towards them.