For today's Community Highlight, ♡Nico♡ has written an amazing article on LGBTQ+ allyship. Nico also makes profile pictures, so if you're interested in that, please check out their profile! Now, here's the article:

"Hello there! My name is Nico and my pronouns are she/they!
Today I will be discussing 'Why LGBTQ+ People should be accepted in the HiH community and how you can be a good ally to the LGBTQ+ students at Hogwarts is Here!'

First off, if you do not know what 'LGBTQ+' stands for, let me give you a brief summary.
L stands for lesbian. A lesbian is a woman that romantically likes other women.
G stands for gay. Gay means liking the same gender as yourself. Such as men liking men and women liking women. Most people think that just men can identify as gay, but that is not true.
B stands for bisexual. Bisexual is where someone likes more than two genders. But in simple terms, it means liking both men and women [and other genders depending on who that person is attracted to.]
T stands for transgender. A transgender person is any person that identifies as a different gender assigned to them at birth.
Q stands for queer. Queer means anyone in the LGBTQ+ community.
And the + stands for many other identities such as pansexual, non-binary, and asexual.

Now... Why should we support LGBTQ+ People, not just on HiH, but in general?
Well, we are all human. We should respect people based on their personality and kindness, not on who a person wants to date or what gender someone identifies as. Because we are all valid and we ALL deserve equal respect. No matter if you are gay, straight, bisexual, transgender, or any other identity, we all should feel loved. It really hurts someone when they feel hated and when they are not treated well. I'm sure everyone wants to feel loved and safe, right? Well, that can only happen if we treat others with love and respect no matter what their gender or sexual orientation is.


Now how can you be a good ally?
Well when you notice on someone's profiles that they identify as gay or trans or anything else, the best you can do is just try to respect that. Because behind every HiH user, is a person with feelings. If you have nothing kind to say to an LGBTQ+ individual, just don't say anything. Because words really do hurt. You should also use a person's preferred pronouns. If someone uses 'They/Them' pronouns and you think that it's stupid that someone would use those pronouns, you should use them. really, it can make a person feel so much better about themselves when someone uses their preferred pronouns. You should also add YOUR pronouns to your HiH profile so people know what pronouns you prefer!

There are a lot of LGBTQ+ people on HiH and we should respect that. We should show kindness towards those people and to everyone! Let's make this community a safer, more inclusive place!"