The Right Battle
As a gay person, I am a part of a vibrant and diverse group. People of all races, religions, and social classes make up our diverse membership. We share the same physical characteristics as everyone else, and we experience the same range of emotions. As a consequence of public awareness campaigns and the willingness of certain prominent members to share their experiences, we've seen an increase in support during the last two decades. Having a strong desire to communicate our differences and a common history of being mistreated allows us to connect on a level that is both reassuring and rewarding. We can unite to speak out against bullying, sexism, and discrimination.
There have been many cases of bullying affecting LGBT people, and this discriminatory behavior has led many of us to hide our sexual orientation out of concern for physical or verbal assault from those who don't understand us. However, when it comes to homophobic bullying, it doesn't stop when students graduate from high school or college. Many members have responded to this by posting videos on YouTube with the "It Gets Better" theme. The videos offer a glimmer of hope for those who have survived such atrocities. One can see how much agony one feels when they are hurt due of something they are unable to change about themselves in many of the poems
As members of the gay community, we also have a shared goal: achieving marriage equality for everybody. In the same way that the civil rights movement of the 1960s brought people together, LGBT people are uniting to fight for equality. As heterosexual couples, we want the same legal rights as heterosexual married couples, including the ability to inherit property and make medical decisions for our partners, as well as access to health care benefits for our spouses. Our intentions are pure." Everybody else gets what we're asking for, and we don't expect anything different from them. There are many of us who would be happy to accept civil unions as a compromise so that we can enjoy the same legal protections as heterosexual couples. Each new state that recognizes that marriage equality is a constitutional right has brought us great joy.
The gay community has been forced to deal with exclusion. Until recently, we were not allowed to openly serve in the United States Armed Forces. Adopting a child as a gay couple is against the law in a large number of jurisdictions. When landlords may dismiss renters because of their sexual orientation, we've had to deal with housing inequity. When our employers learn we're gay, they have the right to fire us. With all of these limitations, we've had to disguise our true identities for fear of being labeled as second-class citizens without access to basic civil rights. Unfortunately, even if contemplating these exclusions is difficult, we have come together to fight for the reversal of such intrusive and unfair legislation.
Instead of giving up, we as a community have come together to work toward achieving equality for all. Human Rights Campaign, Lambda, and the Tennessee Equality Project are just a few examples of the groups we've started. For us, as members of these groups, it is our collective voice that helps lawmakers understand how discriminatory legislation affects us. It's our job to make calls to our elected officials, write letters, and hire lawyers to fight back against bad laws.
Our opponents have come up with numerous arguments to keep us from enjoying the same privileges as the majority of people. Pejorative words like "the Gay Agenda" and "the Sanctity of Marriage" have been used to exclude the LGBT community from equal legal protection. Nothing about the Gay Agenda is controversial or harmful. It's just there. As human beings, we have the capacity to love and be loved in return. We're parents, grandparents, siblings, coworkers, and friends. We all want to be treated the same. We are all entitled to equal treatment. To achieve equality, we shall peacefully work together, motivated by a shared desire to be a full and equal member of the human race. We'll get through this.
