Everyone deserves to be treated equally
[Applause]
there are many issues in the world
and i’m here to talk about just one
this issue is a discrimination against
the lgbtq plus community
also known as the queer community
members of this community face
discrimination from even
their own families for merely existing
sometimes their families goes as far as
to disown them
the sad thing is in some places even the
laws don’t protect them
so what is a queer community well it’s a
community of normal people
members of the queer community identify
as something that is not
cisgender or someone who identifies as
something that is not their biological
gender or heterosexual or straight
lgbtq plus stands for lesbian gay
bisexual transgender queer or sometimes
questioning and others the plus
represents other sexual identities
including pansexual and two spirits a
few decades ago
people of this community were looked
down upon just because society thought
they were
not normal or not natural well we are
normal people
we may be different but we are certainly
normal
just because your friend is taller than
you doesn’t make them abnormal right
well just because a girl likes girls
instead of boys
romantically or sexually does not make
them abnormal either
like any minority the lgbtq plus
community has always fought for their
rights
let’s go back in history to a few
decades ago
the stonewall riot was the first step
taken by the queer community to tell the
world to stop mistreating us
on june 28 1969 it started at the
stonewall inn in manhattan united states
and lasted for five days this riot was
started by people from the local gay and
lesbian bars
who were being treated poorly and
violently by the police
the gays and lesbians were regular
people just like every one of us
like me like you and they deserve to be
treated fairly
but they weren’t and because of this
many
of them back then hid their sexual
identities
not telling others that they were a part
of the queer community
because if they did society would try to
fix
them some people were jailed
electrocuted and some were even hung to
death
just because society didn’t accept them
as they were
i am demisexual panromantic and identify
as a demi female
let me explain demisexual means that i
only feel sexually attracted to someone
when i have an emotional bond with the
person
and panoramatic means i can have a
romantic relationship
regardless of their gender identity with
anyone
but not everyone because that will be
way too much people
now demi-female sounds similar to
demisexual
does it mean i like girls more than boys
no
it means i identify as a genderless no
gender or
non-binary but closer to a female
and by that i use a pronoun of she her
they them it but it can be different for
other demi-female folks out there here’s
my story
when i was in grades one and two back in
china
i would always here my classmates
telling
about each other how bad it was to like
someone of the same gender as yourself
back then we were all confused confused
children and had no idea what we’re
talking about
and that was my first time hearing about
the queer community
by the time i was in grade 6 i settled
in canada
one of my classmates is bisexual meaning
they like girls
and boys i started to think about myself
and my preferences i knew that i wasn’t
straight
but i knew i wasn’t fully a lesbian
either
before that i always thought that being
gay or lesbian was weird
so i didn’t even think that i would
identify as a queer
until i realized that i was probably
weird myself so i went
oh so i’m bisexual skip to grade seven
a good friend of mine told me that they
were pansexual meaning they like
everyone regardless of their gender
identity but not at the same time
and i being quite clueless at the same
time went
oh yeah i’m fine with other gendered
identities too i’m pansexual then
and skipped a few months later i found
out that there’s something out there
called demisexual so i went oh i’m
demisexual panromantic then
and that was the bizarre story of how i
came out to find myself
now i know that there are people out
there who don’t like queer people
and even my dad is homophobic but i
don’t mind that
he’s not treating me badly because we’re
here in canada
and this isn’t something out of the
ordinary here to be queer
but i do know that he likes me a bit
less than before i came out
but i’m proud to be me and all of you
should be proud of yourself as well
i was a confused child before i came to
understand and accept myself
and i stand here now because i want you
to know that it’s okay to be confused
it’s okay to be curious and i i
encourage you to go through different
phases before fine discovering yourself
and accepting your authentic self
i stand here today because the queer
community is my community
i want to tell people what it’s like to
be queer
and i want to spread awareness about the
discrimination we face in the world
people deserve the freedom to be who
they are to choose their identity
to choose who they like and to choose
how they express themselves if you have
a gay or lesbian or transgender friend
or anyone you know in the queer spectrum
please support them
lend them a hand or listening ear at
least
tell them that you care about them and
accept them no matter how they identify
themselves i want you to know that i
care
and so should you we’re all humans after
all
and we all deserve to be treated equally
thank you