A Study On The Queer Community

The LGBTQ community has struggled for decades to receive equal treatment but despite many advancements, this group of people is still not treated justly. The prevalent discrimination and prejudice enacted against the LGBTQ community can be witnessed on accounts of the Stonewall Riots and laws that affect the community such as not allowing gay men to donate blood, sexual orientation in connection to the military, et cetera. The gay rights movement has united to eradicate these issues through support of the LBGTQ community and to help people understand the process, timing, advantages, dangers, and pitfalls of coming out, as well as recent local and international rulings of the Supreme Court on same-sex marriage and the methods, laws, and attitudes of having children.

4 in 10 lgbtq (42%) youth say that the community they live in is not accepting of their identity and 68% of LGBTQ say that they hear a negative messages of who they are from the government. We live in a place with the motto of the land of the free and the home of the brave when these people are discriminated against.These people face oppression on a daily basis for who they are and these statistics need to be changed.

Like African-Americans, rights for homosexuals, transgender, and others has greatly been debated on since the establishment of religion. People who aren’t straight have been looked down on and scorned by society because of its refusal to accept anything different. The gay stigma in society was so great at one point that many closeted individuals would have sex with a partner of the opposite gender and start a family instead of accepting that they weren't straight. Because of the large number of suicide and murders among the LGBT+, the gay rights movement began in the late ’90s. This movement evolving now into the present has been heavily supported by the Democratic party which has helped to establish same-sex marriage and transgender rights for LGBT+ people (“Democrats”). The Democratic party has become an important ally to them and “continues to push for same-sex equality and fair treatment to stop the discrimination against them” (“Democrats”). However, the LGBT+ community still faces scrutiny because of Republicans and religious leaders who don’t agree with gay rights or same-sex marriage seeing it as going against their beliefs; this makes it essential to keep bringing attention to this issue and establishing laws to protect the LGBT+

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people remained silent and unseen in American culture until after the Second World War. During the mid-1950s, there was a rise in discrimination against the people of the LGBT community. LGBT individuals were seen as a threat to the American way so as that belief grew so did the harassment. Imagine living in a world that tells you what you can and cannot do. Many people of the LGBT+ community have been harassed or worse based on their sexual orientation, which goes against Article two of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Due to the prejudice against the LGBT+ community many have risen up to protest and voice their opinion against their oppressor. Society should be unbiased about sexual orientation.

In the last few years the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community have made major strides in a positive direction toward equal rights within the legal system, including the recent Supreme Court decision ruling that same-sex marriages will be recognized in all 50 states. Sixteen of those states and the District of Columbia have full anti-discrimination laws that include protecting gender identity and expression. This leaves roughly 70% of the country’s population living in states without comprehensive anti-discrimination laws (Cobos & Jones, 2009). The work has just begun, as the LGBT population continue to face discrimination regarding education, employment, housing, and healthcare.

Homosexuality has always been a controversial topic in the United States, and the twenty-first century has brought about many new rights for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender group. The American Gay Rights Movement has a long history, but the LGBT community is now starting to have more rights and protection.

Over the years the queer community has made leaps and bounds towards the goal of simple equality, with various anti-discrimination bills, and most recently the legalisation of same sex marriage in all of the states of the United States of America, but that is not to say that the fight is over. An estimate of over 2 billion people still live in countries where homosexuality is illegal , the defence of “Trans Panic” still exists in almost all American states , and “corrective” surgery is still used on intersex individuals against their consent and in some cases their parents as well . The fight is nowhere

Over the years in America life has tremendously changed in this society as homosexuality is becoming a more controversial topic to many . In this past decade, this topic has sprung to the top of religious and political debates . Homosexuality has led to a debate of social matter, however when it comes to laws to protect homosexuals' rights, and equal right that other Americans have society turns its nose up in disgust. The individuals of today fear a world of change and are stuck in their "old ways". I'm here to say that it is time for a change. The lesbians, gays, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community should have the same rights as other American.

I analyze these two pop culture productions because they are reflections of the current social-political setting in North America. Constituting and diminishing social boundaries, pop culture has wide-reaching influence to generate new sets of values and ideals in audiences (Fedorak 2009). Originating in mainstream pop culture, discourses of gender and sexuality The Kids Are All Right and The Fosters support homonormative politics, which privileges some lesbian mothers as intelligible over others. At differing levels, the gender and motherhood ideals they contain ignore the diverse experiences of lesbian motherhood. They appear progressive at face value, even queer at times, yet, they ultimately uphold assimilationist politics and dodge the

The past eight years have been the most amazing in LGBT+ history. From the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell to the overturning of DOMA, there’s no denying that the Obama administration has made huge strides for LGBT+ people in the United States (Obama Administration Record…, 2014). Although these advances in policy have made the United States a better place for the LGBT+ community, there is still a lot of work that has to be done to ensure that discrimination is prevented around the country.

The LGBT community has made new laws each day to bring equality to all. “Throughout its, America has symbolized equality of opportunity for people of all races, origins, religions and creeds, serving as a beacon of hope for anyone seeking a better life. However, despite its founding principles of equality and acceptance, the United States also has a long history of denying basic rights to certain people” (LGBT Equality). When the US discriminates against a certain thing people retaliate and rise up and try to make new laws to help their cause. The LGBT community has been striving to bring equality in many ways. The LGBT community has made great strides in gaining equality of same-sex marriage, gay adoption, and transgender equality.

Even though the percentage of people who support/accept gay marriage has gone up according to Gallup polls, the rights of LGBTQ people are still limited compared to their heterosexual counterparts. In my home state of Arizona, it is legal to fire someone for their sexuality. The heteronormative, cisnormative systems of oppression on LGBTQ people have been instituted in every level of life.

Queer theory was developed by Judith Butler in her post-modern feminist text, “Gender Trouble: feminism and the subversion of identity” (Horitar, 2015). She discussed the role that gender and sexual orientation play in the way in which society uses the concepts in order to place individuals in a specific category on the basis on how they behave (Guantlett, 1998; Horitar, 2015). This theory examines the diverse ways in which current beliefs serves to reintegrate societal anticipations of gender identity, appearance and sexuality, it also offers a negotiation for the fragmentation of constructed gender categories (Horitar, 2015).

Queer culture was once relegated to queer communities, and was seen as a distinctive “other” culture separate from that of heterosexuals or cisgendered individuals. Not only was it relatively unexplored part of popular culture, but the representations of queer characters fit into distinct stereotypes early on. However, one of the primary causes for the under representation of transgender characters and over reliance on tropes is the fact that many of the media was produced by cisgender heterosexuals. However, there have been a distinct number of television shows,songs, and that have entered mainstream entertainment that have been created by queer individuals to represent the diversity of queer people.

A hate crime (defined by Dictionary.com) is a crime, usually violent, motivated by prejudice or intolerance toward an individual’s national origin, ethnicity, color, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability. The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act prevents crimes against all people, specifically minorities, based on prejudice (United States Department of Justice). No laws or acts can change the ignorance and bigotry that have become so prevalent in society; however, education and understanding can change the viewpoints many have developed of the LGBTQA (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Asexual) community.