by Iris Brambila
Safety is a need to keep us alive, yet so many members of our LGBTQ community are missing the feeling of safety. The fear of being seen as less than and abnormal puts our LGBTQ community in an uncomfortable place where they can’t freely express themselves. Although it’s 2017, LGBTQ discrimination has been increasing with Trump and his administration.
On the first day of Trump’s presidency, his administration took off the LGBTQ content off of the White House and Department of State's websites. This only let's us question where does our LGBTQ community stand in politics.
Stanley, an intern at the LGBTQ Youth Center who identifies as queer said, “A lot of individuals see how the administration is right now and how it’s not supporting a lot of mesmerized communities, and I think that scares them.”
Stanley believes that erasing the LGBTQ resources available for the community is a way of, “showing they don’t support us.”
If you aren't a part of the LGBTQ community, you can only imagine the fear of having your resources erased by people who are in power, and not yet having included the transsexual ban in the military Trump tried to pass.
With these two main points, the hatred and discrimination towards this community has risen.
On October 12th, the same day a new LGBT center opened on the campus of Cleveland State University, flyers promoting LGBT suicide appeared on campus. These flyers included statistics on LGBTQ suicide rates and suggested other members of the community should do the same by putting “Follow Your Fellow F***s.”
According to NBC News, Ronald Berkman, the president of the CSU, mentioned, “we will continue to protect free speech to ensure all voices are heard.” The flyers were taken down the day after.
His statement angered even more students, and students pushed forward to organize a protest titled Hate Speech Isn't Free Speech.
Molly Stachnik, the organizer on the protest, argued, "telling people to go kill themselves isn't freedom of speech, legally or morally.”
Berkman’s final response was to work with the leadership of the LGBTQ. The school has to make the community feel safe and protected. The way the poster affects the targeted community could possibly put them at risk because of the hostile environment and could be possibly painful and disturbing to come across such advertisement.
According to NoBullying.com, as of November 7th, 2017, 30% of suicides are LGBT related and over 40% of bisexuals consider suicide. 34% of the trans-community have actually attempt suicide.
Students of the LGBTQ community are 5 times as more likely to skip school due to safety and bullying issues. 64% of the students feel unsafe at school due to their sexual orientation and 44% feel unsafe at school due to their gender identification.
Stanley mentions how safety was what kept him from coming out during his middle school and high school experience.
He states, “Since it's not a talked about thing, people don't really know about it and suppose to the authority like the teacher talking about it or like normalize this individuals that would help people to have more of an understanding and to humanize them in a sense as to suppose to looking at them as someone that's other.”
In his perspective, the first step schools can do is train the staff because he thinks even universities have failed to understand or don't know how to react to the LGBTQ community. It'll start with the teacher since they have the authority in the classroom.
“If they can ally the community, they can protect them and ensure that everyone is learning productively and be safe that environment,” he said.
Another member of the LGBTQ community named Montserrat, a current high school student, also shared her thoughts on what schools have failed to do. Her main thing was that schools have failed to acknowledge the trans community.
“It's awkward,” she says, ”not only for the trans person, but for other people of the sex they are transitioning to and people of the sex they technically were. Like in the locker rooms or bathrooms, there may be awkward encounters and questions will be asked.”
When Stanley was asked to talk about a problem, specifically in San Jose, he responded with an experience his friend, who identifies as a trans-women, and he faced not so long ago . The issue was that one night, while leaving the youth center, and because there’s a lot of bars on the same street, they came across a few drunk individuals. On this night, one of them decided it would be okay to take a picture of his friend without her consent, knowing she said no.
“He basically objectified her and he basically wanted to take a picture of her because she looked different and presented herself differently.” The impact left after coming across that experience.
Montserrat shared a similar experience saying, “I was even harassed by a girl for two weeks straight. She would ask me if I was a lesbian.”
If people were taught to ally and properly respond to the LGBTQ, a member wouldn’t fear the experience of being objectified or harassed for presenting themselves in a different way.
When experiencing discrimination denial, not be accepted, or microaggressions, members are left with feelings of victimization, suicidal thinking, and higher rates of substance abuse, depression, and other health problems among members of the LGBT community.
Montserrat has been depressed dealing with her sexuality. Since growing up, she was taught that straight was the norm and experienced confusion, but also didn’t know who to talk to.
Stanley also faced some feeling of depression and moments of sadness with his identity since he was so in denial. He faced an eating disorder, and when he later did his own research, learned how members of the LGBTQ community are more prone to disorders and depression.
Within the youth members who visit the center, Stanley would say they mainly struggle with their self expression. This struggle can come from fear of not being accepted, categorized as non-normal, or the political discrimination raise that has been taken action since Trump”s presidency.
At the LGBTQ youth center in downtown San Jose, the youth are opened to a space where they’re offered clothes and snacks they can get for free without any paperwork. They also offer computer access, supplies, gender neutral bathroom. Most importantly they have support groups, funds where they self-express themselves, and a queer library dedicated to LGBTQ identities.
On the first day of Trump’s presidency, his administration took off the LGBTQ content off of the White House and Department of State's websites. This only let's us question where does our LGBTQ community stand in politics.
Stanley, an intern at the LGBTQ Youth Center who identifies as queer said, “A lot of individuals see how the administration is right now and how it’s not supporting a lot of mesmerized communities, and I think that scares them.”
Stanley believes that erasing the LGBTQ resources available for the community is a way of, “showing they don’t support us.”
If you aren't a part of the LGBTQ community, you can only imagine the fear of having your resources erased by people who are in power, and not yet having included the transsexual ban in the military Trump tried to pass.
With these two main points, the hatred and discrimination towards this community has risen.
On October 12th, the same day a new LGBT center opened on the campus of Cleveland State University, flyers promoting LGBT suicide appeared on campus. These flyers included statistics on LGBTQ suicide rates and suggested other members of the community should do the same by putting “Follow Your Fellow F***s.”
According to NBC News, Ronald Berkman, the president of the CSU, mentioned, “we will continue to protect free speech to ensure all voices are heard.” The flyers were taken down the day after.
His statement angered even more students, and students pushed forward to organize a protest titled Hate Speech Isn't Free Speech.
Molly Stachnik, the organizer on the protest, argued, "telling people to go kill themselves isn't freedom of speech, legally or morally.”
Berkman’s final response was to work with the leadership of the LGBTQ. The school has to make the community feel safe and protected. The way the poster affects the targeted community could possibly put them at risk because of the hostile environment and could be possibly painful and disturbing to come across such advertisement.
According to NoBullying.com, as of November 7th, 2017, 30% of suicides are LGBT related and over 40% of bisexuals consider suicide. 34% of the trans-community have actually attempt suicide.
Students of the LGBTQ community are 5 times as more likely to skip school due to safety and bullying issues. 64% of the students feel unsafe at school due to their sexual orientation and 44% feel unsafe at school due to their gender identification.
Stanley mentions how safety was what kept him from coming out during his middle school and high school experience.
He states, “Since it's not a talked about thing, people don't really know about it and suppose to the authority like the teacher talking about it or like normalize this individuals that would help people to have more of an understanding and to humanize them in a sense as to suppose to looking at them as someone that's other.”
In his perspective, the first step schools can do is train the staff because he thinks even universities have failed to understand or don't know how to react to the LGBTQ community. It'll start with the teacher since they have the authority in the classroom.
“If they can ally the community, they can protect them and ensure that everyone is learning productively and be safe that environment,” he said.
Another member of the LGBTQ community named Montserrat, a current high school student, also shared her thoughts on what schools have failed to do. Her main thing was that schools have failed to acknowledge the trans community.
“It's awkward,” she says, ”not only for the trans person, but for other people of the sex they are transitioning to and people of the sex they technically were. Like in the locker rooms or bathrooms, there may be awkward encounters and questions will be asked.”
When Stanley was asked to talk about a problem, specifically in San Jose, he responded with an experience his friend, who identifies as a trans-women, and he faced not so long ago . The issue was that one night, while leaving the youth center, and because there’s a lot of bars on the same street, they came across a few drunk individuals. On this night, one of them decided it would be okay to take a picture of his friend without her consent, knowing she said no.
“He basically objectified her and he basically wanted to take a picture of her because she looked different and presented herself differently.” The impact left after coming across that experience.
Montserrat shared a similar experience saying, “I was even harassed by a girl for two weeks straight. She would ask me if I was a lesbian.”
If people were taught to ally and properly respond to the LGBTQ, a member wouldn’t fear the experience of being objectified or harassed for presenting themselves in a different way.
When experiencing discrimination denial, not be accepted, or microaggressions, members are left with feelings of victimization, suicidal thinking, and higher rates of substance abuse, depression, and other health problems among members of the LGBT community.
Montserrat has been depressed dealing with her sexuality. Since growing up, she was taught that straight was the norm and experienced confusion, but also didn’t know who to talk to.
Stanley also faced some feeling of depression and moments of sadness with his identity since he was so in denial. He faced an eating disorder, and when he later did his own research, learned how members of the LGBTQ community are more prone to disorders and depression.
Within the youth members who visit the center, Stanley would say they mainly struggle with their self expression. This struggle can come from fear of not being accepted, categorized as non-normal, or the political discrimination raise that has been taken action since Trump”s presidency.
At the LGBTQ youth center in downtown San Jose, the youth are opened to a space where they’re offered clothes and snacks they can get for free without any paperwork. They also offer computer access, supplies, gender neutral bathroom. Most importantly they have support groups, funds where they self-express themselves, and a queer library dedicated to LGBTQ identities.