Over the past weekend there were nearly 50 people killed in a club in Orlando, Florida. Many people and news outlets have mourned this tragedy and millions of dollars have been raised for the families of the victims. Outside of this being a simply heinous act, The Orlando Massacre reaffirmed much of what people already thought about America.

1. Homophobia is a serious issue in this country.

Too many people allow their ideology about gay people to cause them to do and say things that are morally wrong. Whether or not a person agrees with the lifestyle is not important and people need to respect one another's right to live freely. This isn't the first time that gay people were targeted and sadly it won't be the last. Gay marriage has been legalized in the United States and while I personally don't condone the act I wouldn't kill a group of people simply because they felt otherwise. This behavior is not acceptable.

2. Profiling Is an Issue in this country.

Prior to people learning the nationality of the shooter, media and others alike immediately labeled the man a terrorist. While the man can be seen as a terrorist, one is to question why a person such as Dylan Roof was labeled "mentally unstable" when he went into a BLACK church and killed 9 people. Both crimes could be seen as hate crimes or terrorism, however, the Orlando shooter was labeled a terrorist and Mr. Roof was given Burger King right before the media painted him as a victim with "mental health issues". Neither person is morally right but why aren't they labeled as being the same wrong?

3. The Media Wants You To Believe That All Muslims Are Terrorists

I personally have Muslim friends and they will tell you that the guys with bombs killing innocent people or the guys shooting up club venues are NOT Muslim. These guys do not embody the Muslim values and they are not devout for if they were they would know that killing of any kind is not a practice of those that follow their religion. Muslims are people just like gays, transgender people, Christians and any other identification that people want to go by. Stop letting the media paint a picture for you and go draw your own. Pick up that crayon and draw out the picture after you go see the figure that you are about to make into art. Get to know that Muslim. P.S. if you get to know that Muslim there's probably a good chance he/she is not a terrorist, just saying.

Again the Orlando incident is tragic and incidents like this need to be stopped as they are forcing people to change their lives and taking innocent people away from their families. The U.S. government needs to realize that all people need to be protected and that these "terrorist Muslims" are the same people that are living amongst us every day as are these gay/lesbian men and women. As a nation, we need to live and let live, because the decision to be gay/lesbian is not affecting anyone's life except those practicing it.