Nearly 30 out of 195 countries have passed laws allowing gay marriage, I'm proud to say that I live in one of these 30. On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down all state bans on same-sex marriage, legalized it in all fifty states, and required states to honor out-of-state same-sex marriage licenses in the case Obergefell v. Hodges. Although same-sex marriage has been a controversial topic in states, it has never stopped the community from growing. Every year the community gets bigger as more and more people feel safer and more accepted to be who they truly are.

The LGBTQ+ community of the united states consists of at least 20 million U.S adults. This is about 8% of the adult population that did respond to the survey. Another 2% of people selected in this survey that they were something other than, lesbian, bisexual, gay, or transgender. These 2% could be part of the pansexual, asexual, non-binary, gender-gueer, and so many more. Imagine how large the number would be if it included teens and others not involved in the survey! Our community is more widespread than you could imagine.

The spread of this community could not be so public if we were not a country where this was legal. Being able to be who you truly are with no restrictions is something amazing. Our ancestors fought their way to love. Being able to love the same sex and be the true gender orientation you feel could not have been possible without our history. We have survived through the Stonewall riots (1969), and homosexuality being considered a mental illness ( ended in 1973). The fight to legalize gay marriage has been a struggle since the 1990s, but we have existed since the beginning of time and we continue to be till the end of time.