We need to be allies, no hinderers.
As we continue to live through this quickly passing year, many interesting events have unfolded, from Ford Vs Kavanaugh to quite recently: LGBT posters being sent to gay bars in Nashville, Tennessee. While this may seem harmless in name, the LGBT acronym is changed from its original meaning to Liberty, Guns, Beer, Trump.
And the depiction of the gun?
One of the weapons that were used in the Pulse Nightclub Shooting.
There are many, many, many issues with this, although it hasn't been reported who has sent them.
Over the past week, there have been too many attacks on the LGBTQ+ community, starting with the bill that is currently trying to be passed that, to quote Newsweek:
"On Sunday, a Department of Health and Human Services memo obtained by "The New York Times" stated that the Trump administration was seeking to narrow the legal definition of gender to the gender people were born with, with many believing the new move could stop the recognition of transgender Americans."
The memo states that the administration wants to create an unchanging definition of gender 'on a biological basis that is clear, grounded in science, objective and administrable'.
The discussion about who deserves human rights shouldn't need to continue to be debated. If you are a HUMAN BEING, you deserve the basic rights of choice concerning your life and what it entails. Everyone deserves to have the right to be with who they love and to be the best versions of themselves. We all wish that for our friends, so why can we not wish that for everyone else in our country as well? When you break it down and put your biases aside, it really isn't that hard to do.
Again, I understand that there are always going to be differing opinions about what defines gender, marriage, and sexuality. And that is completely and totally fine.
HOWEVER:
If you are going to actively force your opinions on others and then try to pass things that infringe on their rights, that is going to end up being problematic. I always say this, but I feel like I will keep repeating myself until it's understood: You have no right to take choice away from another person, regardless if there are differing beliefs, lifestyles, or political affiliations.
These repeated attacks on the LGBTQ+ community are only going to further divide the country. If we think that we can get away with coming after communities like this and not have to deal with that repercussion, many people are in for a rather rude awakening. It takes away from what we are as a country that was previously defined as the "greatest". How can that still be a claim when we as Americans do this to our fellow people? It not only makes us look weak and divided, but it also forces our people away and diminishes our faith in humanity.
We need to change the way we treat the people of our country, otherwise, we're going to continue to lose our claim on "the greatest country".