The current debate over which bathroom transgender people can use has the entire country captivated. Only 0.3 percent of the entire population is transgender, yet it seems that everyone has an opinion on this subject. Whether you're for or against it, you've definitely heard about it and it seems to be the main concern of society today. So since this is the main problem in the U.S, the rest of our problems must be pretty small, right?

Wrong.

In 2007, it was found that in the United States alone there are more than 3.5 million homeless people. It is estimated that 1.3 million of the homeless population are children under the age of 18. We have millions of people without a place to sleep at night in our own country, yet no one seems to realize the magnitude of the situation.

There is also a huge problem with poverty in America. In 2014, it was found that 46.7 million people live in poverty. Of that 46.7 million, 15 million are children under the age of 18. This is unacceptable. Every night, children in our own country go to bed without knowing where their next meal will come from.

There are programs put in place to help the children that live in poverty get the meals they need. One such program is the National School Lunch Program. Over 21 million children currently qualify for this program, which gives them free school breakfasts and lunches. But the free school food doesn't continue during school breaks or summers. While most people focus on the poverty outside of the United States, we need to start thinking about our own people who are going hungry.

So since a number of children in America are homeless and impoverished, let's talk about how they are protected.

The CPS is a government agency that is responsible for child protection (thus the name, Child Protection Services.) Lately, they have had a difficult time responding to all of their cases, which has lead to a number of children dying while under their protection. This is because the CPS investigators have not been able to check up on their kids as often as they should be due to a very high number of cases given to each investigator.

An example of this is Leiliana Wright, a 4-year-old from North Texas who died at the hands of her parents, even though abuse had been reported to CPS months earlier. Many other cases like hers have been in the news lately. This issue doesn't seem as important as transgender people in bathrooms to Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who came to Texas to speak about the bathroom use for transgender people while remaining silent on the recent issues with CPS in North Texas. He ignored this gigantic issue, but chose to speak about bathrooms. I do not understand how those two issues are not of equal importance to people in power, Mr. Patrick for an example.

Do you see my frustrations?

I understand that the transgender bathroom issue is a big issue and needs to be dealt with. Everyone deserves to feel safe when they are in the bathroom (transgender or not) and this should be dealt with on its own. But I think that we should spend more of our time actually doing something to fix the problems that are affecting so many Americans every day. We can do more than debate. We can actually change the number of homeless in America. We can change the number of people who don't have enough food to eat everyday. We can help the children that are being neglected. There are so many more pressing issues that are affecting Americans everyday that need the same, if not more attention, as which bathrooms can transgender people use when they go to Target. So why as Americans, are we putting bathroom use on a higher platform than starving children? If we gave any of these problems half the attention that the bathroom issue is getting, then I think that the number of homeless, hungry and abused would go down greatly.

Click here to see how you can help the hungry in your area.

Click here to see how you can help the homeless in your area.

Just one organization that helps children in the custody of CPS is the BEAR organization. There are many more like it, click here to get involved.