I really don't think about this topic a lot because being gay is just who you are and you should try to never let your sexuality define you but recently I have thought about it a lot.

In the past month, the conversation of sexuality has started to come into the forefront of today's news with the horrific alleged attack on African-American actor and singer Jussie Smollett, who is best known as Jamal Lyon from the Fox drama series Empire.

On January 29^th, Smollett alleged that he was brutally attacked by two men who were yelling homophobic along with racial slurs at him, poured bleach on him, and even put a noose around his neck while they were yelling "This is MAGA Country".

So many emotions came to my head when this story came up on my Twitter feed like disgust, anger, sadness, etc. but my first thoughts that came to my head while reading about it may surprise some.

I'm not even surprised that this attack that allegedly happened.

Unfortunately, people in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans community have to worry about this happening to them every single day. We worry if we act "too gay" in public. We worry if we are dressing "too out there" in public. We worry if we are holding hands with our significant other in public.

We have to worry about these things all the time because we don't want people to come up to us, make fun of us, and bully us for just being who we are.

I'm so thankful that incidents like the one that allegedly happened to Smollett has never happened to me but I'm just one of the lucky ones. I have incidents when I'm out at night either by myself or with friends when I have had people stare at me for what I am wearing and/or whisper things about me to the people around them.

I have even had one incident when a guy in a pickup truck will roll down their window just to yell the f word at me. Yes, that f word.

Hate speech and crime against the LGBT community is still very relevant in this country and all over the world. The alleged attack against Smollett is only one of the few that will be brought up in the national news because of the status of his career. Imagine if he wasn't a celebrity. We would never know about this horrific alleged attack.

I hope everyone reading this won't just make you feel sad for people like me and others in my community. I hope this will spark a fire in you to help support your brothers, sisters, friends, and many more people in the LBGT community. Stand up for those you are too scared to do it themselves. Educate yourself so you can be more proactive and help us fight for our rights.