As an LGBTQ+ teenager in America, I experience lots of homophobia/transphobia/general unease about the LGBTQ+ community. It manifests itself in different ways; sometimes it’s harmless questions, like “what does omnisexual/pansexual mean?” and sometimes it’s speed walking away from a conversation the second the LGBTQ+ community is mentioned. sometimes its silent judgement; sometimes it’s incredibly verbal judgement. The point is, whenever I see a post or comment by those privileged straight people, along the lines of “why do LGBT people make such a big deal of judgement and representation,” I don’t think they see what’s really going on. Because the LGBTQ+ community isn’t scared of being judged by straight people; we could care less. But almost all of us, at some point, have to be scared of rape, murder, injury, and any other forms of physical/sexual/verbal harassment for being ourselves. And straight people don’t know this, because guess what? There’s no media coverage, there’s no movies or mainstream books about LGBTQ+ characters. So sometimes I sit silent in a classroom, while the people around me, oblivious, discuss what they think about trans people. We, the LGBTQ+ community, are not something you get to make choices about. Not something you get to erase when it makes you “uncomfortable.”

Note for people wondering from the above: omnisexuality is when an individual is attracted to all gender identities (like pansexuality) but goes through phases where they may be more attracted to one gender than another. so basically, it’s pansexuality but with varying preferences.