Straight and Gay Student Alliance (SAGA) groups are student-organized clubs aimed at creating a safe and welcoming school environment for all students regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. Critics of such groups are putting forward a strong effort to stop SAGA clubs from forming. However, SAGA clubs have formed in schools across the country spanning the last few decades. In opposition to their critics, many SAGA participants and students must jump through multiple hoops in an attempt to get their extracurricular organizations accepted in the public school system. From public criticism to school officials stalling, the creation and implementation of such clubs tend to face seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Religious right and social conservative groups continue to assemble with hopes of preventing such controversial groups from forming and potentially “tainting” their children. Even with all the disparagement regarding students forming extracurricular clubs, there are two main laws that ultimately protect students’ right to form extracurricular clubs at school: the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the federal Equal Access Act. While it is often difficult to legislate morality, many conservative, religious groups seek to do just that. Intolerance and occasionally blatant homophobic views of homosexuality in society perpetuates hostility towards LGBTQIA+ students. “Victimhood” is a strategy that the religious right
The LGBT community has been silently suffering through generations. But in this generation, they are finally showing the world their voice. There have been many instances where young adults were denied their right to be who they are and now they are speaking out about the mistreatment. Even though the united states have begun to be more open about the LGBT community here is still more change it come. These changes can be explained through many sociological perspectives including: functionalist, conflict, symbolic interactionism and interactionism. Along with these perspective religion, norms and deviance all impact these individuals who are striving to be open about who they really are inside and out.
In the aftermath of the Supreme Court Case Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) which nationally legalized same sex marriage, the religious right has felt that protections on religious liberty in this country have gone under attack. As the LGBTQ+ movement gains more traction in mainstream media, local municipalities, and even state governments, many religiously conservative states legislatures have begun to fight back by passing laws that protect a person’s right to discriminate against the LGBTQ+ community because of religious objections. While a person’s right to abstain from participating in a business transaction concerning a same sex marriage has been widely debated (and continues to be widely debate) for some time now, the new anti-transgender
Sadly, until this problem is fixed, LGBTQ+ people will still discriminate against because of people standing up for Religious Freedom. 64% of LGBTQ+ kids feel unsafe in their school because of their sexual orientation, and 44% feel unsafe because of their gender identity. The LGBTQ+ community fair for them to be discriminated against, but this country was founded on Religious Freedom, so it isn’t fair for people of faith to go against their beliefs. Until this problem is solved, LGBTQ+ people, kids, and adults, will be bullied and discriminated against, and people of faith will feel their rights aren’t protected.
Education is an important factor in life in order to thrive, but LGBT students face harassment in school due to their identity. According to a Human Rights report conducted in 2001, two million American students in the LGBT
Oppression of minorities has had a detrimental aspect in the associated individual’s lives. History has demonstrated that as a western society, we devalue minorities’ rights and values through legislation and societal views. Today, this remains to be an issue for many individuals of many stigmatized groups. Although efforts to reach a more unified community have been taken, many minorities still fight oppression. Through activism, social and political movements, the LGBTQIA community have progressed immensely throughout the past few decades. History has demonstrated a slow, yet vast amount of success in this marginalized group. Activists endured a long journey toward gaining rights for the community which lead to a modern day civil rights movement for the LGBTQIA community. Although there has been a great amount of successes, non-heterosexual individuals still do not have full equal rights as their heterosexual counterparts. There are still adversities that are being faced in this population that hinder these individuals from thriving. The issue is even greater when the individual has an additional identity that is also marginalized. Specifically, individuals who identify as people of color (POC) and LGBTQIA still encounter prejudice from society.
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.
As children we are taught to love and accept other, however, this is not always the case. More often than not we never taught to love those different from us, instead we go on through life only loving those who are similar to us, our unintentional intolerance remaining uncorrected. Growing up without that nurturing hand teaching us to live in a world that is far more diverse than it has ever been, leaves us as intolerant and uneducated adults, whether it is, or is not, by our own doing. In American society, time and time again, the failure to practice what is preached in our so-called values has been our only success. From the segregation of African-Americans to the oppression of Women, and now the fearful and sometimes violent discrimination against LGBTQ oriented individuals is the nation’s most recent atrocity. By standardizing the image of what love and the human identity is to a typical heterosexual individual, society is limiting the diversity of the nation and degrading the lives of so many valuable people. What’s more is the fact that this intolerance that is permeating all levels of society is almost centralized in the most significant aspect of any society: its schools. Schools everywhere are ignoring the high concentration of LGBTQ discrimination by their students and even faculty. It is extremely hard to believe that this kind of behavior is tolerated in schools, not to mention the fact of its being taught in churches all across the nation. With
Based on the discussion from the Williams Institute, it is evident that there continues to be a prevalence of discrimination among groups that are not viewed as culturally acceptable in our county. In this article, it is reported that people are more likely to experience hate crimes based on their sexual orientations. For instance, 44% of people reported experience physical violence (without a weapon) because of their sexual orientation, and 80% had been verbally harassed (Herek, 2009). Although the Hates Crimes Statistic Law became effective in 1990, the stigma surrounding the LGBTQ community continues to affect their everyday life. It may defer a person by identified their sexual orientation for the fear of being discriminating in the workplace,
Many social workers have had minimal training and preparation in servicing Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, and Questioning (LGBTQ) clients. It is not uncommon or unlikely that even the most seasoned practitioner will display some form of negative bias or utilize misinformation with assisting these clients. Because the Universe and the norms are steadily changing and evolving we as social workers must do the same to better assist our clients especially our oppressed populations. This research paper will provide an in depth look at the LGBTQ community, in particular the adolescent victimization of LGBTQ students in a school setting. Research suggests that youth who identify as LGBTQ are at greater risk of suicidal thoughts, suicidal attempts,
The LGBTQ community consists of people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and queer. This diverse group is united based on their shared history of discrimination based on their breaking the norm of heterosexuality. The groups within this community, while vary in experiences, are able to maintain some amount of solidarity by agreeing on the importance of advocating for rights to better the safety of the LGBTQ people. Throughout history prejudice people who look down upon those with differing sexual orientations have bullied, harassed, raped and murdered people from all the categories of the LGBTQ community. It was not until 2009 where President Barrack Obama signed a law that has made it a federal crime to assault someone based on
Along with verbal abuse, LGBTQ youth also experience physical violence in schools across the country everyday. Back in the 1980’s and 1990’s sociologists such as Joyce Hunter thought that much of the physical abuse happening towards the LGBTQ population stemmed from the stigma and fear that came from the AIDS epidemic that was spreading rapidly among the gay community in that time. In a study as recent as 2003, 60% of LGBTQ youth had reported being assaulted physically due to their sexual orientation (Chesir-Taran, 2003) These physical actions towards the gay and lesbian youth has caused many to fear going to school. In fact, many LGBTQ students avoid school in order to escape the physical harassment. This drop in attendance has detrimental effects on the student’s academics (American Educational Research Association).
Homosexuals are being discriminated in their own homes, work place, and schools. Vanessa Garcia was judged and bullied during her childhood because she was lesbian. Garcia “was afraid to go to school [because] everyone treated [her] like a freak”. Her fear came from the peers in her school harassing and calling her names. Garcia never felt like she fit in with her peers. At a moment she even felt that there was “something fundamentally wrong with [her]”; which almost caused her life when she tried to commit suicide. John Williams is another example of the fear that society creates for being a homosexual. Williams is a gay male student who aspires to become a middle school teacher. Nevertheless, he is afraid that there will not be a school that hires him because of his sexuality. Antigay prejudice and homophobia interfere with the dreams of many members of the LGBT community. Homophobia causes heterosexuals to believe that homosexuals are less worthy and therefore it is okay to treat them unfairly. People do not take in consideration the deep wounds they are causing gay individuals with their prejudices. LGBT are human beings and they should not be thought to be inferior.
Reports: LGBT-rights abuse in every region. (2013, May 1). Windy City Times, 28(30), 4. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com.proxy.davenport.edu/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA334178008&v=2.1&u=lom_davenportc&it=r&p=STND&sw=w&asid=edc11997f029c506218dd7091f3567fd
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals, also known as LGBT population have experienced a great deal of oppression worldwide. These particular individuals undergo discrimination from society, whether for reasons of ignorance, fear or intolerance, this population faces challenges in multiple areas of social justice sexual. Although the LGBT culture has made some strides in the areas of state and federal legislation, there is still a wide range of criminalization that takes place within our culture. Understanding the LGBT community and the history of their oppression may be the first step in becoming culturally competent. For many years this culture was denied their basic constitutional rights that were afforded to their equal heterosexual peers. Basic rights such as, adoption and marriage were uncommon to this culture until the 20th century.
Many LGBT have to face discrimination while trying to attend and can be such a huge obstacle to try to receive an education when you have to go to a hostile work environment every day. In the article “Like walking through a Hailstorm-discrimination against LGBT Youth in US Schools” states that “A lack of policies and practices that affirm and support LGBT youth-and failure to implement protections that do exist -means that LGBT students nationwide continue to face bullying, exclusion, and discrimination in school, putting them at physical and phycological risk and