To be honest, I’m livid. It is 2017 and white supremacists marched through the streets of Charlottesville, Va. resulting in the death of a young woman. These members, mostly white males, carried flags with swastikas on them, brandished lit tiki torches and held their right arms in a fashion that the Nazi’s did in the 1940s to heil Hitler. It’s 2017, and the vice president of the United States wants to “hang all the gays.” What has our world come to?
Yes, I know. Everyone’s opinions should be respected, but that’s hard to do when racist and homophobic bigots encourage violence toward innocent people. These are invalid opinions that nobody should respect. Racism and homophobia should have died a long time ago.
Race is not something that can be controlled. A baby doesn’t pop out of the womb and think to itself, “Hey I’m going to be white.” No, a baby comes into this world the same beautiful race, or mixed race, as it’s parents. Why can’t people see that? Why can’t people see that when you strip people of their skin, everyone’s bones look the same? Everyone’s organs look the same. We are the same on the inside. We just all look a bit different on the outside.
It seemed that homophobia was slowly starting to leave mainstream media when Supreme Court passed same-sex marriage laws in Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015. It felt that way until the election of President Donald Trump. No matter what political views someone has, bigotry has no place in the “land of the free.” Yeah, it doesn’t really feel like the land of the free and the home of the brave anymore. It feels a bit more like the “land of the racists and the home of the homophobic bigots.” Maybe I’m crazy opinionated or maybe I’m just an accepting person.
The LGBTQ+ community is not a club that people choose to join. It is not a lifestyle people choose to live, it’s how they are born. Do you think they would choose to be discriminated against if they had a choice in the matter? No, everyone wants to be accepted in society. And even if someone did choose to be gay, bisexual, queer or another identification, which I’m not saying they do, isn’t that their choice to make? Nobody discriminates against a person when they choose chocolate cake over vanilla, so why can’t society stop discriminating based on who someone loves?
This may come off as a rant, but I promise a bigger picture is being painted. The truth of the matter is people need to stop staying silent when they hear hateful comments. People need to stop thinking that others will think they are a crazy liberal for standing up for what is right. This isn’t political anymore. This is an issue of human rights that the United States vowed to protect. Well, the United states isn’t doing that right now. It’s time for people to stand up. It’s time for people to say enough is enough. I’ve had enough. The LGBTQ+ community has had enough. Anyone who is not white has had enough. Anyone other than Christians has had enough. It’s time for America to make a big change.