As Americans, we have a foundational belief that every person is created equal. So then the question is, why are we not respecting this belief in all its capacity today? The discrimination that LGBTQIA+ individuals face creates the impression that they are not created equal, but when was that ever true? The outstanding hypocrisy surrounding our society needs to be addressed.
For this article, I had spent several weeks interviewing many local queer teenagers and young adults on the topic of discrimination in this community. From the start, most people going into the interview weren’t aware of the problem going into the interview. At the end, every single person had agreed to witnessing and experiencing discrimination as a part of the LGBTQIA+ community. All of them stated that they experienced harassment on average three to five times a week.
However, the data I myself gathered through interviews had shown the LGBTQIA+ members that have stated to be under the transgender umbrella (trans, non-binary, genderfluid, etc.) have experienced more harsh harassment, ranging from slurs, sexual comments and other acts of sexual harassment to death threats. Though people in that community statistically do experience harsher harassment it in no way excuses the abuse all the others experience. This can also range in extremes, it can also include sexual harassment, slurs and “strange” comments to threats.
With these astonishing explanations, a few personal statements may explain the situation better.
Stanford, a teenager who is genderfluid and queer, shared that they’ve been called slurs on the internet many times but now it has reached the point where people have started approaching their brother and directly asking if his sibling is a derogatory term.
Another person who wished to remain anonymous, but shared that they are non-binary and lesbian, shared a time when they were at the local town center when a person drove past them yelling a derogatory term at them, “identifying” it based on their looks.
Another person who wished to remain anonymous, but who is bisexual, explained how throughout his sophomore year him and his friends were harassed by a group of girls in school for being queer.
Yet another, Rose, who is transgender and bisexual, discussed how in 2024 she was being harassed by a group of boys that were leaving mean comments and then the boys pushed her to the ground. In response to the outburst of violence she punched the boy who pushed her, resulting in the group of boys surrounding, punching and kicking her until one of the campus supervisors broke up the fight. This stunt resulted in two of the boys being suspended, which made it better but not okay.
Every I interviewed shared that the discrimination they experience has an emotional impact on them from feeling hopeless and devastates to self harm, as well as suicidal thoughts and attempts.
In the end, it’s important to understand that almost every single teenager and young adult experienced harassment just for being who they are. We as a community need to be able to accept people regardless of who they are, because their actions are not affecting anyone but them. Every person is created equal, after all.
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