My Internship At The Institute For Lgbt Studies At The

Lawrence v. Texas: The Justification for the Decision and its Significance for the LGBTQ+ Community

As far as knowledge learned from lower level courses are concerned, I used this information every single day while on my internship. Although most students see them as merely the basic classes that we just need to get through, they come to be extremely relevant over the course of working in the field. Everything from estimating to materials and methods come into play and it is always exciting to see the knowledge learned in those classes come to life in the real world.

The history of LGBTQIA+ rights in the United States is long and complicated. The identities within the LGBTQIA+ community that are accepted have shifted over the years as the majority of the population comes to understand some identities to be commonplace and struggles to understand others. However, the gaining of rights and acceptance by the LGBTQIA+ community has nearly always been tied to legal recognition. Lawrence v. Texas questions whether or not a Texas statute that bans homosexual sodomy is constitutional. Although LGBTQIA+ rights issues are controversial, the statute that convicted John Lawrence and Tyson Garner for having private, consensual gay sex as well as the means of conviction are clearly unconstitutional on several grounds,

Virginia case opened the door to a new civil rights movement. This time, it is about the rights of the LGBT community. Only in recent years has homosexuality become acceptable in the public eye. Regardless of the laws stating we cannot discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation, homosexual individuals are still treated as second class citizens. Gay men and women were denied the right to marry whom they loved. Couples had to fight for their love one state at a time until finally, on June 26th, 2015, the United States supreme court ruled that discriminating against same sex marriages was unconstitutional and “states must recognize same sex unions” (Chappell 2015).

The Supreme Court of the United States ruled on a major case that will affect millions of Americans in one way or another. This ruling has been decades in the making and was certainly going to be controversial no matter how it turned out. The key issue is whether or not gays and lesbians had the same constitutional right that heterosexual people do in regards to marriage. Not too long ago the concept of this even being considered by the high court would’ve been unfathomable. The 5 to 4 court ruling favoring the plaintiffs has shocked many generations of religious and conservative people.

Lewin was the first widely publicized court case that changed the conversation surrounding queer couples.[footnoteRef:50] Baehr v. Lewin was a lawsuit in which three same-sex couples argued that Hawaii's prohibition (enacted after the passage of The Defense of Marriage Act) of same-sex marriage violated the state constitution. Although it was a case regarding legal action, it expanded on claims surrounding the institutions marriage (including the legality of non-procreative relationships). It questioned not only if queer relationships are legitimate, but led to public recognition to the commitment of the three couples involved. In most discussions of Baehr v. Lewin, one couple was referenced as a couple of “thirty some years”, giving it not only legitimacy, but a relatability that most queer cases didn’t have previous to the Baehr case.[footnoteRef:51] [50: Clark, Andrew. 2011. "Falling through the Cracks: Queer Theory, Same-Sex Marriage, Lawrence v Texas, and Liminal Bodies. “Disclosure no. 20: 24-43. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed March 23, 2016).] [51:

In the United States, LGBT rights have been expanded by landmark U.S. Supreme Court decisions. Between 1996 and 2015, the Supreme Court struck down sodomy laws, Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), allowed protected class recognition based on homosexuality and made same-sex marriage legal on a federal level. Justice Kennedy played a pivotal role in expanding the rights of gays and lesbians over the years through specific legal rationale that insists upon protection of LGBT rights. On the other hand, Justice Scalia’s dissenting opinions oppose expanded constitutional protections for gays and lesbians. In order to understand the evolution of LGBT rights, it is crucial to analyze the opinions from Romer v. Evans, Lawrence v. Texas,

The issues surrounding sexuality and gender nonconforming individuals in the United States have played an increasingly large role in modern politics since the mid-20th century. These issues, commonly referred to LGBT rights, directly affect the lives of a vast number of American citizens and, as such, any legislation addressing these issues is public policy. The growing demand for equality among the LGBT community has resulted in a number of Supreme Court cases and legislation addressing commonly debated issues such as marriage and employment discrimination. Though these particular issues have received attention from Congress, there are still other problems within the LGBT communities that must be

In the wake of Trump’s election the LGBTQ community faces uncertainty about what protection the U.S. government will provide. Last week’s Supreme Court ruling of Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission displayed that a majority of the Court support discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation for the sake of religious neutrality. While refusing to bake a gay couple a wedding cake is not inherently harmful, the arguments used to justify segregation or refusing services can be detrimental when applied to other queer discrimination cases. In the recent months Trump’s administration has been rolling back protections that the Obama administration put in place provide transgender people with adequate healthcare and humane treatment

Abraham Lincoln once stated, “Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves”. The LGBTQ+ community is a group that has been gaining a fair amount of attention in the last couple of years. Even though evidence of homosexuality can be traced back to Before the Common Era, today’s world heavily discriminates against those who openly love a certain group of people. Personally, I would like to learn about the different struggles that the community has had to face, along with how the courts have made certain decisions and the reasoning behind their conclusions. I do not know much about the topic. However, I am aware that there has been a great struggle for the members of the LGBT+ community to receive the rights they aspire to possess.

Since the beginning of time, people have been living in a world full of hatred, violence, and hostility towards one another because of physical or social differences. While we strive to create an ideal world for future generations, people still tend to discriminate against others on a daily basis simply because of their skin color or gender. One of the most despised groups of individuals in the past has been the gay and lesbian community. Gays and lesbians were not socially acceptable to society at one time, but over the years they have made significant breakthroughs in history that have opened up the doorways of gaining the same rights and opportunities as others. Along with the many triumphs of the Gay Rights Movement, there have also been many setbacks.  Bottoms v. Bottoms is one of the most renown Supreme Court cases that further demonstrates the struggle for equality for gays and lesbians.

Muñoz, S. T., & Kalteux, D. M. (2016). LGBT, the EEOC, and the Meaning of "Sex". Florida Bar Journal, 90(3), 43-48.

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.

reflections gave me the drive to apply for this internship because I want to teach others about the

The article discusses the potential creation of a Restatement of the Law treatise which is devoted to various legal issues affecting LGBT people in America as of 2014, focusing on the American Law Institute (ALI), efforts to decriminalize sodomy, and the promotion of LGBT rights. Same-sex domestic partnerships and the legal rights of same-sex couples are mentioned, along with state marriage laws and remedies in the U.S. Social marginalization is examined in relation to women and minorities.