Since I’m me, and I enjoy talking about things that not many people enjoy talking about, let’s chat on the topic of the LGBT community.

Let’s get one thing straight, all humans are humans, who deserve happiness. Alright now that that’s out of the way, let’s begin.

LGBT stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. What do all these words mean you may ask. A lesbian is a homosexual female. Someone who is gay is a homosexual male. A person who is bisexual, which is commonly shortened to bi is someone, male or female, who is attracted to both genders, male and female. Lastly, the “T”, stands for transgender. Someone who is transgender is a person who has a gender identity or expression that differs from the gender they were originally born with, so a transgender male was born a female.

Recently I’ve been seeing some pretty wicked things around the web about this. People are being shot for having a sexual preference other than heterosexual, or straight. Others are committing suicide because their family or greek group rejected them. Others are being bullied and some are being tormented. By going out of your way to harm someone else, you are not only hurting them but those around them. Some of those around them could be straight, part of your community. Just saying. However, I understand why some people would have a problem with their choice of romantic partner. What I don’t understand is the violence. They aren’t bothering you and some probably don’t even want you. Bottom line, everyone like what they like and everyone has a hobby, if you don’t like it, don’t stick around for it. Simple as that.

Being a straight senior in college, I’ve met a good number of people who associated themselves with at least one of these categories. Here’s a strange concept, they are actually human beings whose sexual preference is different than mine. Outside of my truthful sarcasm, as a whole, I’ve come to know and understand from my own personal experience, that they are extremely open minded and very respectful. Some are even more respectful of my opinions and ideas than my friends who are straight. I think that it’s because they have a different perspective on the world. They experience so much hatred and backlash for just wanting to try new things or simply just being unique. So much that when another person expresses something to them that may be controversial, they approach it with an open mind and genuine outlook.

Yes, I recognize that there are some homophobic people out in the world and people who don’t think that they should have certain rights due to religious beliefs, cultural norms, and various other things. However, I’m not talking about that. I;m talking about seeing them as people. No one berates me for having romantic relations with a guy or knowing that I’m in a relationship with someone who is the opposite sex. So why should they?

I feel as though if we lived in a society where being homosexual was the norm, heterosexual people would be treated either the same way as some of us treat them now, or straight people wouldn’t be treated any differently.