As a child I was taught to love everyone for who they are. As a kid you think that everyone has the same views as you do. It wasn’t until I was in the sixth grade that I found out that everyone’s view was not the same as mine.
In sixth grade I made a friend whose name was Marcus. His confidence and humor drew me to him as a person. We had become so close that we told each other our deepest darkest secrets. One day he revealed to me that he was gay. At that point in my life I had never met someone that was not heterosexual. With him telling me this news it did not change my view of him. I still loved him as a person and even more as a friend. Within weeks my whole class knew of his secret that he revealed to me. The way that they started treating Marcus was different. Before he was one of the most popular guys in the class, now people would barely speak to him. Eventually this progressed to people, especially boys, bullying him. They would do things like slap the books out his hand, or push him around in the hallways. I always used to tell Marcus to let the teachers know, but he never wanted to. It angered me to know that people had started treating my friend differently because of who he found attractive. This was my first instance of an injustice when it came to sexuality. Marcus was viewed as “Other” while all of our other classmates were “One”. They had a power over him that he could not overcome and it was frustrating to witness.
I believe there could be many solutions when it comes to this problem. One of the first solutions is to teach our children to love everyone for who they are. Every human is not the same and teaching little ones to spread love to everyone would have a huge impact. Another solution is people in school having repercussions for bullying people for their sexuality. I witnessed a teacher seeing the bullying and doing nothing about it. The last solution is educating people about the LGBTQ community. This community grows everyday and I believe it is important to treat everyone the same. Rather than treating them differently, we should welcome them with open arms, because at the end of the day we are all humans.