love it’s what makes the world go round
every day
men and women get married start families
and show compassion for one another but
what about those who love someone of the
same gender the lgbtq+ community battles
for the rights every single day in
Congress courtrooms on the streets and
in their own homes they fight to be able
to walk down the street holding the hand
of the person they love to be referred
to with the proper pronouns and for
their love to be recognized as real
under the administration of our current
president this community has been one of
the minority groups to suffer greatly
in January the president removed all
content on LGBT civil rights from the
White House website in February he
revoked protections for transgender
students on their use of Russians in
public schools in March he rescinded
protections for LGBT workers against
discrimination in hiring and employment
in April he finally showed some support
and dropped a federal law over North
Carolina’s statewide prohibition on LGBT
equality however his support was
short-lived and in July he signaled that
the US military would not accept or
allow transgender people to serve I’m
now happy to say that that policy has
been deemed unconstitutional and will no
longer go into place in 2018 on October
11 2014 one of my closest friends came
out to me as gay for her privacy I’ll
refer to her as L always the first
person L ever came out to and I will
never forget the fear she had on her
face because she didn’t know what my
response would be whether I would accept
her or push her out of my life
I took her head with love and support
and over the past three years I’ve been
able to watch L grow more comfortable
with herself she’s gone from hiding in
the closet to talking to just her
closest friends to now she expresses her
pride to me every single day and tells
me how she’s going to change the world
for people like her however else closet
has two doors one in which she opened to
find accepting friendships and the other
in which she doesn’t dare to touch one
that remains locked
behind that locked door are the most
important people in Elle’s life the
people that gave her her life the lgbtq+
community has not talked about in a
positive way in her house and therefore
she’s forced to stay quiet and keep that
door locked the hate she’s heard at home
through the hallways at school and over
social media has helped her fall into
depression l frequently comes to me with
tears rushing down her face telling me
she will never be able to love who she
wants saying she’s not worthy of love
and saying that she’s a disgrace
Ellis attempted to take her life several
times and if you ask her why she’ll tell
you because I live in a place where I am
hated have few rights and cannot express
myself so tell me why why should I stay
here in a place where I am not loved for
who my heart was born loving this is not
the way people should go through life
show them support show them someone
cares show them they are valuable it is
recognized pretty much everywhere that
men and women can love one another that
men and women can start families and get
married however the idea of two men or
two women doing the same exact thing
still scares people
but why what have these people ever done
to you have they hated you for loving
have they shamed you for expressing your
gender have they tried to convert you no
they protest peacefully simply voicing
their opinion and raising awareness for
their basic human rights yet they get
responses of hate speech threats loss of
employment and in some cases they are
killed for love killed for wanting the
right to love this is 2017 and religion
and homosexuality still conflict with
one another yet people are born gay and
we are taught religion nobody is born
knowing what the Bible the Torah or any
other holy book says so I encourage you
to please do not use religion as an
excuse to hate people for intend LGBT
youth say they live in a place that is
not accepting of them that’s 40% 92% of
youth in this array say they hear
negative messages about being LGBT
mainly through school social media and
even their peers while is not a definite
statistic due to many people not being
out roughly 10 percent of America’s
population refers to themselves as a
member of the lgbtq+ community that’s
every 1 in 10 people these people are
also more likely to attempt and/or
commit suicide not only because of the
hate they directly receive but also what
they hear around them being different
shouldn’t make people targets being
different is what makes us all beautiful
complex and individual whether someone
is gay lesbian transgender bisexual
pansexual asexual the list can go on
nobody deserves to be bullied or hated
for who they love or the gender they
identify as so step up show support to
your fellow humans educate yourself on
the rights they do and do not have
coming out can be hard so be an ally
respect a person’s pronouns show them
they are people to help them gain rights
so they too can be with the ones that
they love because in the end equal
rights for others does not mean fewer
rights for you this is a fight for basic
human rights and LGBTQ plus members and
allies will not surrender because love
is love and not about gender this is
love let people love
[Applause]
every day
men and women get married start families
and show compassion for one another but
what about those who love someone of the
same gender the lgbtq+ community battles
for the rights every single day in
Congress courtrooms on the streets and
in their own homes they fight to be able
to walk down the street holding the hand
of the person they love to be referred
to with the proper pronouns and for
their love to be recognized as real
under the administration of our current
president this community has been one of
the minority groups to suffer greatly
in January the president removed all
content on LGBT civil rights from the
White House website in February he
revoked protections for transgender
students on their use of Russians in
public schools in March he rescinded
protections for LGBT workers against
discrimination in hiring and employment
in April he finally showed some support
and dropped a federal law over North
Carolina’s statewide prohibition on LGBT
equality however his support was
short-lived and in July he signaled that
the US military would not accept or
allow transgender people to serve I’m
now happy to say that that policy has
been deemed unconstitutional and will no
longer go into place in 2018 on October
11 2014 one of my closest friends came
out to me as gay for her privacy I’ll
refer to her as L always the first
person L ever came out to and I will
never forget the fear she had on her
face because she didn’t know what my
response would be whether I would accept
her or push her out of my life
I took her head with love and support
and over the past three years I’ve been
able to watch L grow more comfortable
with herself she’s gone from hiding in
the closet to talking to just her
closest friends to now she expresses her
pride to me every single day and tells
me how she’s going to change the world
for people like her however else closet
has two doors one in which she opened to
find accepting friendships and the other
in which she doesn’t dare to touch one
that remains locked
behind that locked door are the most
important people in Elle’s life the
people that gave her her life the lgbtq+
community has not talked about in a
positive way in her house and therefore
she’s forced to stay quiet and keep that
door locked the hate she’s heard at home
through the hallways at school and over
social media has helped her fall into
depression l frequently comes to me with
tears rushing down her face telling me
she will never be able to love who she
wants saying she’s not worthy of love
and saying that she’s a disgrace
Ellis attempted to take her life several
times and if you ask her why she’ll tell
you because I live in a place where I am
hated have few rights and cannot express
myself so tell me why why should I stay
here in a place where I am not loved for
who my heart was born loving this is not
the way people should go through life
show them support show them someone
cares show them they are valuable it is
recognized pretty much everywhere that
men and women can love one another that
men and women can start families and get
married however the idea of two men or
two women doing the same exact thing
still scares people
but why what have these people ever done
to you have they hated you for loving
have they shamed you for expressing your
gender have they tried to convert you no
they protest peacefully simply voicing
their opinion and raising awareness for
their basic human rights yet they get
responses of hate speech threats loss of
employment and in some cases they are
killed for love killed for wanting the
right to love this is 2017 and religion
and homosexuality still conflict with
one another yet people are born gay and
we are taught religion nobody is born
knowing what the Bible the Torah or any
other holy book says so I encourage you
to please do not use religion as an
excuse to hate people for intend LGBT
youth say they live in a place that is
not accepting of them that’s 40% 92% of
youth in this array say they hear
negative messages about being LGBT
mainly through school social media and
even their peers while is not a definite
statistic due to many people not being
out roughly 10 percent of America’s
population refers to themselves as a
member of the lgbtq+ community that’s
every 1 in 10 people these people are
also more likely to attempt and/or
commit suicide not only because of the
hate they directly receive but also what
they hear around them being different
shouldn’t make people targets being
different is what makes us all beautiful
complex and individual whether someone
is gay lesbian transgender bisexual
pansexual asexual the list can go on
nobody deserves to be bullied or hated
for who they love or the gender they
identify as so step up show support to
your fellow humans educate yourself on
the rights they do and do not have
coming out can be hard so be an ally
respect a person’s pronouns show them
they are people to help them gain rights
so they too can be with the ones that
they love because in the end equal
rights for others does not mean fewer
rights for you this is a fight for basic
human rights and LGBTQ plus members and
allies will not surrender because love
is love and not about gender this is
love let people love
[Applause]
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