To The Editor:

The full acronym is LGBTQQAAI – it includes allies. We are lucky enough to live on a diverse campus. In highly conservative areas, allies are marginalized. People assume that if you are an ally, you must be gay, and allies are bullied and ostracized. True, it is foolish to assume that allies have the same experiences as, say, a lesbian. At the same time, it is foolish to assume that a lesbian has the same experiences as a transgender man. I am not an ally, but The Easterner’s recent article on Ally Week left me greatly offended. By assuming that you know what an ally experiences, you are practicing the very behavior that you reject. A community is just that: a community. A group of people who embrace and stand with one another in spite of their differences. Please do not focus on what makes us different from one another. That is the very attitude that makes us have to fight for equal rights in the first place.

Thank you for your time,

A concerned queer student