When I came out to my mom, she was super accepting and cool about it. But as I started more openly talking about my sexuality and homophobia I realized my mom had no idea homophobia is still a thing. She had no idea there are protestors at pride parades, you could get fired in most US states(including ours), people call me names sometimes in the halls(though rarely, my school’s supposed to be an accepting school), even some of my friends have told me being gay is a mental illness!
There is so little representation in the media and people can claim they are accepting of LGBTQ+ people but they don’t want our sexuality shoved in their face but they don’t realize that’s not the point. We want representation so little kids or even teens can see themselves in characters and know there’s nothing wrong with themselves. We want different sexualities and gender identities to be a normal thing. We should be able to talk about the same sex as freely as straight people can talk about the opposite without us “shoving it in your face!”
I hope that someday, however long it takes, LGBTQ representation won’t be uncommon or revolutionary but a normal thing and teens won’t have to suffer figuring out their sexuality and finding acceptance. We already suffer trying to figure out what to do with our life after highschool!
