Guest Post! » ft Sierra from The Nerd Girl Review on "Animosity against LGBT+Community"

A quick update before you start reading this post from my dear friend, if you are interested in guest posting then shoot me an email! I have a link on my sidebar. Enjoy Sierra's words of wisdom!

Hey you guys! Quick introduction, my name is Sierra and I am a blogger over at The Nerdgirl Review. Temecka is my buddy reader and asked me to write a guest post, so of course I said, yes. At first, I had no idea what I wanted to write on, but Temecka suggested that I write about something concerning LGBT+ community since it is Gay Pride Month, and of course, I agreed again.

            Originally, I was just going to talk about the lack of LGBT+ characters in books and how we are misrepresented and the usual bookish things, but then something happened. On July 12th, 2016 a gunman shot the gay club, Pulse, in Orlando, Florida, killing nearly 50 people and injuring 53+ more. This shooting is now the largest mass shooting in the entire United States history. This event is so pivotal that I just had to talk about it and its roots.

            First let me give a little background about myself and why this event and community means so much to me. I am asexual (the actual “A” in LGBTQIA+). For those of you who don’t know what asexual means it means that I do not feel sexual attraction, and if you want to learn more about that and my viewpoint on asexual representation see this post here.

I, like other members of the community, are not welcomed by everyone, and I cannot for the life of me understand why. There are people that believe that being gay, lesbian, bisexual, asexual, etc. etc. is not natural (which, who the hell are you to determine what is “natural” or not? Almost all the other species on Earth exhibit homosexuality, asexuality, etc. so “nature” is actually saying be who you want to be) and because of that they are hateful for literally no damn reason. I have been harassed because I don’t want to have sex. I have had friends who are afraid to label themselves as bisexual because they are afraid of the perspective people will have towards them. The fact that we have to live like this is ridiculous.

Some people say this was an act of terrorism and it just might very well have been, I don’t know, but at the core of this was a HATE CRIME. This man despised the LGBT+ community so much that he took it upon himself to end their lives. How did something as sexual orientation cause so much anger? 

We are all human beings, so why does sexual orientation matter so much? Why does it infuriate some straight males to see two gay men kissing? ARE YOU THE ONE DOING THE KISSING? NO!!! SO WHY DO YOU CARE SO MUCH??? Some would respond that it is against their religion. Newsflash: not everyone practices your religion, so we don’t give a rat’s ass what your religion “supposedly says”.

We have come so far as a society, yet at the same time continue to still digress. Gay major is legal, but states are still finding ways to discriminate against the community. We have reached a new level of acceptance, yet the amount of animosity has never been higher. People have died just for liking someone, for being with someone who makes them happy. In what world is it okay to kill someone because they have found a love that makes them happy?

Everyone has the right to be who they are. They deserve to be happy and free, so long as they don’t infringe on anyone’s else’s right to be happy. Mass shootings like the one at Pulse indicate that we as a society have not changed enough. Society needs to let go of its animosity and realize that people are people no matter how they so choose to live. It’s like a tattoo. If you don’t like tattoos, good for you, don’t get one. If you don’t like to have sex with men, then whoopdeedo, don’t do it. Those are your choices to make. However, when it comes to other people, you have no say on the matter. If that person wants to cover their body from head to toe in tattoos, they can do it. If two women love each other, you just need to get over yourself and accept that love is love no matter who it’s with. Your life is yours and yours alone to control; you don’t get to have power over anyone else.

I would love to hear from you guys so comment below on this awesome topic!