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Waldfogel 1

Live and Let Love Be

By:

Megan Waldfogel
A teen boy goes to school every day
with fear in his eyes. He walks down the
hallway, gets shoved into the locker, and is
called a "fag" by a group of jocks. Later, he
goes to lunch and has food thrown at him
and he ends up sitting in the bathroom,
crying all alone. Through all of the names he
was called and the pain he went through, he
wonders if he can do this anymore. The next
day he doesn't show up at school. The
ambulance is at his house with a body bag
and a gurney. That day, the boy committed
suicide because of the pain and torment that
people were giving him at school because he
was gay. Many kids who struggle being gay,
a lesbian, bisexual, or a transgender usually
gets to them and they end up committing
suicide because of their sexual orientation
which they can't choose. It is who they are.

Americans). They want to be accepted but


some people and/or groups won't accept
them for who they are based on their
religion. "However if your religion makes
you feel righteous in kicking your own child
out of the house over something that they
have no control over, then I'm sorry. I don't
need a book to tell me that's wrong... Is that
really what God wants? These people don't
care about what God thinks. They care about
the shame from the neighborhood of having
a gay person under their roof" (Chris
Thompson).

Disapproving Religions
Teens are the most likely to try or
actually commit suicide based on being an
LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and
Transgender). "The study found that onethird of the youths had made a suicide
attempt at some point in their life, and 6
percent had made a suicide attempt in the
last year" (Researchers assess gay youths'
mental health; one-third have attempted
suicide, but most have no signs of mental
disorder). Religion is a factor in the suicide
attempts. They can't change who they are
and if their religion can't accept LGBT
people then they have a big struggle in their
life.
Based on a research survey, some of
the most unfriendly religion groups against
LGBT's are Muslims (84%), Mormons
(83%), Catholics (79%), and evangelical
churches (73%) (A Survey of LGBT

Treated like Trash


Being gay, lesbian, bisexual, or
transgender is NOT a choice. People were
made this way and they get hate for being
who they are. In the video Is being GAY a
CHOICE? by Chris Thompson, an
anonymous guy stated, Not many people
know Im gay. If I had a choice Id choose
to be straight because as a gay, I feel empty
and less than other men. I just found
rejection from people, even from my parents
(they love me, but hate the fact Im gay),
and even God dislikes that so Im so
****ed up. Sometimes I ask myself if
theres still any possibility to become
straight, it seems impossible because Ive
never felt attracted to a woman before its

Waldfogel 2
pretty confusing. If I were
straight I think Id be
somehow, a little happier.
People who disagree with this
not being a choice think that
god made that person normal
and they chose to be gay. That
is not the case.
Adolescence get hate
more than adults do. Why?
Because they go through
school with bullies and other
people who hate on them.
According to "Gay Rights
and Gay Activism", "Boys
and girls are often confused
about their sexuality during
their adolescent years". This is when they
are usually confused and picked on for
discovering themselves. LGBT students get
bullied more than other kids because they
just are not considered
to be right.
A great TV show that shows how
much hate openly gay students receive at
school is the show Glee. The only openly
gay student in William McKinley High is
Kurt Hummel. Every day he gets shoved
into lockers, thrown into dumpsters, has
slushies thrown into his face by the football
jocks, and called the school unicorn.
Then, joining glee club doesn't help by
putting him even lower on the school totem
pole than he already is. The main jock who
hurts Kurt, David Karofsky, also later has
some problems with bullying, after he kisses
Kurt and the whole school finds out. He
decides he can't handle the torture he is now
receiving. So, he
decides to try and
hang himself. This
shows how powerful
words and actions can
hurt people, especially
teenagers.

Realization
There comes a time that
people realize that they are
gay, lesbian, bisexual, or
transgender. "The survey
finds that 12 is the median
age at which lesbian, gay, and
bisexual adults first felt they
might something other than
heterosexual or straight" (Pew
Research Center). So by the
time they are in junior high
they might start to think they
could be a LGBT. Then, it is
about around the age of 17,
when they know for sure they
are.

Acceptance
After they realize they are gay,
lesbian, bisexual, or a transgender they
decide to come out when it is comfortable. If
anyone is having trouble with the coming
out process, here are some numbers and
websites to visit.
www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org 1-800273-TALK (8255). www.trevorproject.org
1-866-4-U-TREVOR (866-488-7386).
www.glnh.org, Hotline: 1-888-THE-GLNH
(888-843-4564), Youth Talk line: 1-800-246PRIDE (800-246-7743). Also go to
www.itgetsbetter.org for more help.
Once the coming out process is done
and they find someone that they love, they
can choose to get
married. There are
only certain states and
countries where
people can have a
legal same-sex
marriage. According
to the "Human Rights
Campaign

Waldfogel 3
Foundation", there are 20 countries with
same-sex marriage licenses issued, and those
include Argentina, Belgium, Brazil,
England, Canada, Denmark, Finland (likely
to take effect in 2016), France, Iceland,
Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New
Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, Spain,
South Africa, Sweden, Uruguay, and Wales.
Also other same-sex marriage
licenses issued in certain jurisdictions
include Mexico (Mexico City and Quintana
Roo) and the United States of America
(Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut,
Colorado, Delaware, District of Columbia,
Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa,
Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts,
Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New
Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North
Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania,
Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Virginia,
Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and
Wyoming). Hopefully everyone's families
will accept them for who they are and not
based on any other factor besides love.
LGBT is a serious topic and
shouldn't be thought of as something funny.

Many people become hurt from this


happening. Next time a person who is gay,
lesbian, bisexual, or transgender walks by,
think before acting upon them unnecessarily.
It was how they were made and it wasn't
their choice to become this, but they are
proud of who they are. They are just like
anyone else and everyone should be
accepted as the same.

Dark Red: Countries


Light Red: Certain
Areas

Works Cited

Waldfogel 4
"A Survey of LGBT Americans." Pew Research Centers Social Demographic Trends Project
RSS. Pew Research Center, 13 June 2013. Web. 28 Jan. 2015.
"Gay Rights and Gay Activism." Gay Rights & and Gay Activism. Same Sex Attraction, 2015.
Web. 01 Feb. 2015.
"International." Human Rights Campaign. The Human Rights Campaign, 5 Jan. 2015. Web. 29
Jan. 2015.
"It Gets Better Project." Gale Student Resources in Context. Detroit: Gale, 2011. Student
Resources in Context. Web. 25 Jan. 2015.
"Researchers assess gay youths' mental health; one-third have attempted suicide, but most have
no signs of mental disorder." Consumer Health News [English] 8 Dec. 2010. Student
Resources in Context. Web. 25 Jan. 2015.
Thompson, Chris. "Is Being GAY a CHOICE?" YouTube. YouTube, 28 Aug. 2014. Web. 29 Jan.
2015.

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