My message: Allow the LGBT community our safety and freedom of expression

Dear future president,

I want to live in a country where I don’t have to fight tooth and nail just so that people in my community can feel safe. I need it to weigh heavily on your mind that the largest-scale mass murder of LGBTQ+ people happened this year: not centuries ago, not decades ago, but this year, the year you are stepping in to take office.

I need you to be aware of how LGBT people of every age, race, sexuality, gender, income level, and location in America are highly susceptible to hate crimes, abuse, sexual assault, homelessness, bullying, discrimination, and murder. I need to know that it terrifies you as much as it terrifies me, as much as it informs my every decision, as much as it impacts my ability to trust others or express myself. I need to know this on behalf of myself, a lesbian teenager, and on the behalf of every single queer person I’ve ever met, befriended or loved.

We need you to make a change. You want to make this country a better place? We’ll believe it when we see less of our friends, less of our heroes, less of our innocents suffering, fighting and dying.

Sincerely,

Sarah Orgiyvsky

CHAMPS Charter

Los Angeles, Calif.