I'm scared because I stand up for others?

This must sound really cowardly and selfish to a lot of people. I'm mostly talking about me being scared when I stand up for gay people. I'm not scared in the moment when I say everything about how all people should be equal no matter their sexuality.... But then I read all these stories about people getting killed for being gay or speaking their minds. This is something I strongly believe in and I'm giving a speech I wrote about Gay Rights, to the class. They'll be ok and won't try to do me in but later I have to give the speech to a lot MORE people and what if one of them is an anti-gay tries to kill me AND my family like I read about in the news... I don't want my family to die and I'm seriously panicking and freaking OUT!