Progress Through Struggle: The Gay and Lesbian Rights Movement The history of gay and lesbian rights in the United States has been a long and difficult struggle. Throughout early history many gays and lesbians had to hide their sexuality for the fear of being persecuted and even killed for their sexual preferences. It was only within the last half of the 20th century that we started to see a large movement for the equality of gays and lesbians in our society. There are still constant struggles that gays and lesbians have to endure, both in their personal life and in society. Many states in the United States have banned gay and lesbian marriages in their state constitutions. Younger gays and lesbians are still struggling with being open about
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All this discrimination makes it hard for gays and lesbians to be open in society today. Even though progress has been made in gay and lesbian rights across the United States in recent times, there is still constant discrimination in our society. Gays and lesbians have been fighting to have equal marriage rights for their partners just as heterosexual couples have had since society began. Being open about your sexuality was taboo in our society but within the last 50 years progress has been made though various court cases. In 1971 a gay couple in Washington State trying to get married challenged the state law that was vague about gender in marriage. The court case titled Singer v. Hara determined at the end that marriage was defined as a union between a man and a woman. That created the legal definition in law about what is considered marriage. The next big blow to gay and lesbian rights was the passing of the Defense of Marriage Act that was passed by the senate in 1996. This act declared that states had the right to deny marriage licenses from other states that legalized gay marriage. Ron Becker, author of the book Gay TV and Straight …show more content…
I liked musicals. I didn’t make friends or hang out with people. Then I found theater. I got picked on a lot, even by teachers too. I liked to listen to musicals and bake, and my homeroom teacher found out and mocked me in front of the whole class for baking. I got beat up a couple of times in the schoolyard.” (Parker-Pope)
Savage along with support from various different celebrities and even supporters like President Barrack Obama showed teens that being gay or lesbian is not something you have to be ashamed of and the bullying will stop. With our younger generation I have seen more of an acceptance with gays and lesbians as classmates and friends, with time I hope that discrimination will disappear. Gays and lesbians deserve the same rights and respect that any other person in the United States has. We see how discriminated gays and lesbians are in most of the country, while our cities are more accepting to the lifestyle our countryside still treats them as second class citizens. I believe that once we overcome these challenges we will, as the founders of our nation declared in the first line of the constitution “…form a more perfect Union.” Helping inform the public about the “normality” of gays and lesbians in our society will help curb the amount of hate and abuse that both men and women receive each and every day. Though constant progress has been made to curb the amount of discrimination towards gays and lesbians we still
All this discrimination makes it hard for gays and lesbians to be open in society today. Even though progress has been made in gay and lesbian rights across the United States in recent times, there is still constant discrimination in our society. Gays and lesbians have been fighting to have equal marriage rights for their partners just as heterosexual couples have had since society began. Being open about your sexuality was taboo in our society but within the last 50 years progress has been made though various court cases. In 1971 a gay couple in Washington State trying to get married challenged the state law that was vague about gender in marriage. The court case titled Singer v. Hara determined at the end that marriage was defined as a union between a man and a woman. That created the legal definition in law about what is considered marriage. The next big blow to gay and lesbian rights was the passing of the Defense of Marriage Act that was passed by the senate in 1996. This act declared that states had the right to deny marriage licenses from other states that legalized gay marriage. Ron Becker, author of the book Gay TV and Straight …show more content…
I liked musicals. I didn’t make friends or hang out with people. Then I found theater. I got picked on a lot, even by teachers too. I liked to listen to musicals and bake, and my homeroom teacher found out and mocked me in front of the whole class for baking. I got beat up a couple of times in the schoolyard.” (Parker-Pope)
Savage along with support from various different celebrities and even supporters like President Barrack Obama showed teens that being gay or lesbian is not something you have to be ashamed of and the bullying will stop. With our younger generation I have seen more of an acceptance with gays and lesbians as classmates and friends, with time I hope that discrimination will disappear. Gays and lesbians deserve the same rights and respect that any other person in the United States has. We see how discriminated gays and lesbians are in most of the country, while our cities are more accepting to the lifestyle our countryside still treats them as second class citizens. I believe that once we overcome these challenges we will, as the founders of our nation declared in the first line of the constitution “…form a more perfect Union.” Helping inform the public about the “normality” of gays and lesbians in our society will help curb the amount of hate and abuse that both men and women receive each and every day. Though constant progress has been made to curb the amount of discrimination towards gays and lesbians we still