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Shelby Kinnin

ENG 1201.503

Professor Dunham

23 May 2019

The LGBTQ+ Community

To some people it might seem weird but to me it is not weird at all that most if not all of

my friends and technically myself included is a part of this community. Before I found out that I

was Asexual I always joked that all my friends are gay, and I was the only straight person. Now

that I have come out to most of my friends as Ace including my very ace best friend it finally felt

like I belonged somewhere. My other very Pansexual non-binary friend now jokes about the fact

that their best friends are “Hella Ace” and that even though they really want to talk about very

sexual things they always respect us and doesn’t talk about it unless we say its ok to.

I decided to choose this topic because it seemed more lighthearted compared to my other

topic of gun control and its relation to school shootings. I decided against it because of my

personal experience in a school shooting and I knew I would not be able to write and research

about it without many panic attacks and just uncomfortable moments. Going back to the topic

that I chose, I wanted to learn more about this community because growing up I was always told

that it is terrible to be gay or just apart of this community in general. I want to know more about

the history of this group and how they have become more welcomed or attacked.

I feel like learning more about this topic will help me better understand my friends and

the people of this community. I think that this is a very interesting topic that can also be deemed
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very debatable and needs to be approached cautiously. I feel as if I might mess up and say

something that could be offensive which is not what I am wanting to do. I believe that

researching this topic might help me find out more about who I am and more about my friends

and possibly understand what they are going through. Some things that I already know about this

topic is that this community has always been under attack and has only just a couple years ago

been allowed people to marry another no matter what gender they are. I also know about some of

the types of sexualities and gender identities.

What I still want to know is how being apart of this community correlates to mental

health issues. I also think it was be interesting to know more about the history of the pride

parades and how it helps strengthen the community. I think I will be able to find information

about this topic by looking at biographies of people in this community and books or articles

relating to mental health and the LGBTQ+ community. I also think I will be able to find

information possibly through social media and even through some of my friends’ own personal

stories.