By Isabella
Do you ever walk down the street worrying police are going to arrest you for who your significant other is? Well, some people in the LGBTQ community have to worry about this. Everyone should have the right to walk down the street without fear. Everyone should have the right to walk down the street without needing to fear the people who are supposed to protect us! However, as unfair as this is, not everyone walks around without fear.
LGBTQ people might not be attracted to the opposing gender, they might not conform to their sex assigned at birth, they might not use the pronouns that everyone assumes they use because of how they dress or the length of their hair. People who belong to the LGBTQ community sometimes have to hide who they really are in order to please the people around them.
For example, if someone was transgender, and lived in an area where trans people aren’t accepted, this person might have to lie and say they’re the sex they were assigned based on their genitals. They might have the cops called on them just for holding hands with someone who looks like the same gender. LGBTQ people can be thrown into jail just for trying to be honest about who they really are.
The world isn’t black and white and the people who think it is are the ones who always screw it up. The sooner people realize that the sooner LGBTQ people can be treated like humans, not some alien species. There are stories of people, LGBTQ teens, who have come out to their parents and have been rejected, told to leave or have had parents say they would rather have a dead straight or cis child instead of a living LGBTQ child or teen.
Let’s talk about some statistics here. When surveyed in 2017, 26% of LGBTQ students surveyed said they felt safe in classrooms at school and 5% said they felt like the staff are supportive of LGBTQ people. Over 50% of the people surveyed said they could never use the bathroom that aligned with their gender identity. The suicide rate for LGBTQ youth is about 10% which is about 1.5-3 times the suicide rate for non-LGBTQ youth. 56.6% of students reported hearing homophobic remarks from their teachers or other school staff, and 71% of students reported hearing negative remarks about gender expression from teachers or other school staff.
People should be allowed to use whatever bathroom fits their gender identity. At the very least, if you aren’t going to let people use the bathroom they need to use, have a gender neutral bathroom. For people who identify with a different gender than the bathroom they are being forced to use, the bathroom based on their sex assigned at birth its humiliating. It means the world doesn’t like you for who you actually are. It means that people can’t see past the genitals you were given at birth. They don’t really see you. They see your genitals. Based off this one thing about you, people might hate you. Let me make one thing clear: Who you are has nothing to do with what you were labeled as at birth.
The United Nations says this is the definition of human rights: “Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other status. Human rights include the right to life and liberty, freedom from slavery and torture, freedom of opinion and expression, the right to work and education, and many more. Everyone is entitled to these rights, without discrimination.”
Considering the fact that LGBTQ people don’t have the right to their lives a lot of the time (their parents might put them into counseling to try and make them like “everyone else”, this is called conversion therapy, or might kick them out of the house, etc.) they also don’t really have liberty. The definition of liberty is the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views. That is not true for LGBTQ people. So that is two basic human rights LGBTQ people don’t have.
The next two human rights are freedom from slavery and torture. These also aren’t a given for LGBTQ people. LGBTQ people might be forced to do things they don’t want to do, for the benefit of others. Freedom from torture. LGBTQ people can be harassed or put in jail for just being themselves. The only reason behind it is the fact that they are LGBTQ. THEY ARE BEING TORTURED EVERY SECOND SOMETHING LIKE THIS HAPPENS.
The next two parts of basic human rights are freedom of opinion and expression. Considering that LGBTQ people can be in fear of their lives for just expressing themselves and having an opinion about things. They do not have those two rights. The right to work and have an education are next. LGBTQ people have been fired just because their boss found out that they were LGBTQ. LGBTQ students have been bullied and harassed at school. Some students have been told by their principal that they couldn’t come to school because of their gender identity or sexual orientation, therefore taking away their right to an education.
LGBTQ people are people too. They didn’t come from a different planet. They are humans. So, they should have these rights as well. EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE THESE RIGHTS WITHOUT DISCRIMINATION!!!! All of these rights are rights to be alive. By taking these basic human rights away from LGBTQ people you are telling them they aren’t people.
LGBTQ rights should be human rights. LGBTQ people need the right to exist. THEY ARE HUMAN WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT!!! LGBTQ people are people too!!