Gay Civil Rights: How To Win Them
Similar to the civil rights movement of the sixties, our country is once again seeing a rise in civil hate crimes and a rise in discrimination against a particular group of people. In our present day and age, these crimes are occurring against those that chose a sexual orientation or gender identity outside the norm. By doing this, they may accidentally invite a lot of hate into their lives.
The history of gay rights shows us that it will be a long and tedious project to obtain total equality and equal gay civil rights. The battle that many of these people are fighting is seen in the war that gays have fought to simply be a family. Many areas still do not see gay marriage as a legal binding contract. Despite the fact that these two people love each other, they are not allowed, by society, to get married as the rest of us do.
As an area of law, gay civil rights are getting better. New and improved laws are being enforced in order to make sure that places of employment as well as housing do not discriminate because a person is gay. This may be a big step for gay civil rights to take, but it does not mean that gays are really getting better treatment. Often times gays get discriminated against, but it is hidden under the guise of something else, as many employers have found ways around the laws so that they do not get caught.
We may see crimes against gays going down, but that is no reflection of the actual state of things. Gay civil rights are by no means hammered out perfectly, and thousands of victims still feel ashamed and afraid to come forward and claim that crimes have occurred. This results in an incorrect statistic, as most of these crimes are either not reported or are reported as a different type of crime.
Perhaps the biggest opposition to the gay movement is the conservatives. These people are generally the ones who believe in the old way of doing things and are hesitant to change. These opponents are usually based heavily in some religion where gays are unnatural and hated for choosing to be gay. People are being killed for this line of thought daily.
Gay civil rights are changing and emerging to give these people more protection and freedom from those who would harm them. It's probably never going to be perfect, but there are many ways we can learn from the civil rights movement in the sixties. It is vital that people start talking about what is going on as well. If the world knows what is going on, then it may be easier to stop it.
The history of gay rights shows us that it will be a long and tedious project to obtain total equality and equal gay civil rights. The battle that many of these people are fighting is seen in the war that gays have fought to simply be a family. Many areas still do not see gay marriage as a legal binding contract. Despite the fact that these two people love each other, they are not allowed, by society, to get married as the rest of us do. Many new laws have been instated to make sure that housing and employment opportunities do not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.
Published March 11th, 2008
Filed in Politics