What Would You Fight for to Create a World of Your Dreams

Why is it that people who prefer a different lifestyle are punished, unwelcomed, and frowned upon? One of these main lifestyles is being involved with the LGBTQA+ Community. For centuries gays, lesbians, transgenders, etc. have been shamed, and/or punished for whom they loved and who they wanted to be. A week ago I was asked “What would you fight for?” and the first thought was “equality”. This essay reveals my thoughts and arguments on why we need to fight for community equality as I believe that this problem cannot be solved without taking radical decisions.  

People usually treat LGBTQA+  community so poorly mainly because the world is built on the foundation of religion, that heavily influenced the common opinion that frowns upon the different opinions and thoughts the community has. Children who have same-sex parents, or discovering themselves in thie community, also face hardships because of adults telling them what is or is not proper for a successful future. Due to fear the LGBTQA+ Community is forced into hiding from people that discriminate, and prevent them from receiving jobs, and/or housing. These punishments are unreasonable and raises another question. Why does the community need to fight for equal opportunities that any other hetersexual person recieves? For example, marriage is still restricted to them in a handful of states, and countries. Although a lot of people say that the LGBTQA+ Community is immoral and unnatural, it's unconstitutional to deprive them from basic human and civil rights.

The LGBTQA+ Community has always struggled with obtaining the same basic human rights as any other heterosexual person. Why? For centuries, history has followed the guidelines of religion on how to live and what is/is not considered right and wrong. Numerous religions deem homosexuality, transitioning, gender identity, etc. as immoral and unatural. As this teaching was emphasized, people followed it blindly and with great ardor. People also followed the “rule” that relationships should only be between a man and a woman. “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. Followers also believe that there are only two genders stated in scriptures and holy texts state that God created only man and woman. 'God created man in his own image. . . . male and female he created them. And God blessed them, saying: ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it’. Of course the idea that people would prefer to be anything else other than their biological gender was “absurd”, so as the LGBTQA+ Community began to develop people shunned them. This was the way of living for decades. You were to live by the words on whichever holy text you worshipped and never stray from the lifestyle it described, or else you were severely punished, tortured, or even killed. This forced anyone that was bold enough to stay true to their feelings of being gay, and/or transgendered to go into hiding. Even to this day of progression the LGBTQA+ Community is forced into hiding or else they will be punished.

People in the community are being forced into hiding, due to the fear that they will be sent out of their homes and/or jobs. This is a constant problem occurring across the globe. People openly involved with the LGBTQA+ Community would not be permitted jobs or fired from them, and would be neglected from housing or even evicted. Bigotry toward this community grew so much that they wouldn't even be permitted to enter the United States military. On December 21, the “Don't Ask, Dont Tell Act'' was issued by President Bill Clinton in 1993. This act prohibited gays, bisexuals, and lesbians from serving the military and being open about who they were. President Bill Clinton stated that, “The known presence of an openly serving soldier would create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability”.This act was repealed after seventeen years by the “Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act” in 2010. Although it allowed gays, lesbians, and bisexuals to openly serve in the United States Army, is did not proibit the discrimination on the basis or sexual orientation in the military. This also did not lift the ban on permitting transgenders into the military. Results from an outdated discriminating medical standard showed that there were more medical problems with transgenders compared to a hetersexual person. Of course this “research” was never clearly explained, nor stated who conducted it, but it distinctly showed that it favored ones’ opinion over true facts. However, this law was lifted on June 30, 2016, by the Pentagon acknowledging that the military desired to recruit the best soldiers regardless of their gender identity. There are still multiple rights that the LGBTQA+ Community is not fully allowed, the main one still being the right to marry.

Marriage should be permitted to all couples and not only to one’s that consist of just a man and woman. The centuries old tradition of marriage is considered a sacred ritual in order to join two people together. However, this was not permitted to people involved in the LGBTQA+ Community, because it was stated to only be between a man and a woman in both religion and later the law. “...this one will be called “woman,” for she was taken from man...and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh.” In 1967 a couple went to the supreme court in order to legalize their right to marry, however they were met with the sentence, “The institution of marriage as a union of man and woman...is as old as the book of Genesis.” This created the everlasting argument that marriage is a right and not solely a privilege. Marriage was deemed a fundamental right in the 1880s, however the state didn’t specify that it had to be between a man and a woman because they didn’t think that people would go against it. In 2016 the Constitution declared that marriage would only be permitted to the union of a man and woman. It was very unconstitutional, and of course people fought and argued about this new law. People consisting of both the community and supporters made good arguments on why this law should be abolished. People don't engage in marriage just for the purpose of procreation. The sole purpose of marriage was to originally increase the population. This stopped being a concern in the late 1700s as population began to become stable, and disease was treated by more effective medicine. There is also prejudice of same-sex married couples being bad adult figures to children if they were to make a family. This sounds like a very silly reason to not permit marriage to same-sex couples and it is. Of course a silly argument would lack reason, and their isn’t any good reasons nor facts on why/how same-sex couples make horrible parental figures automatically. Arguments contine to be the base of reasons why the LGBTQA+ Community is not allowed access to the same privaleges as other heterosexual people.

Why must the LGBTQA+ Community fight for privileges, instead of having equal opportunities to them? The community doesn't want easy access to privileges, they just desire the right to be given equal ground to obtain them. This brings up the privilege to be open about their relationships vocally and physically. Adults, and teenagers in the community are often not allowed to show any PDA including just holding their partner’s hand. There has been statements, and documentation of same-sex couples being discriminated in public, at stores, resturants, etc. A blogger under the username Sid.les-b-honest writes articles and shares other people’s struggles that are in the LGBTQA+ Community. She shares her daily life of being an open lesbian being, “Hard trying to find that state of mind to ignore others that constantly degrad you on being who you truly are on a daily basis”. This type of collective hatred causes people to once again fear to be open about themselves and their relationships. Another main privilege the community wants fair access to is health care. Specific companies are allowed to deny service to any customer, however this power is abused. Reports of people being denied health care mainly consist of people in the LGBTQA+ Community, because companies tend to discriminate against them for unconstitutional reasons. There are even cases where they wont allow the same amounts or coverages to them if they do somehow find a way to maintain it. All of this neglection and discrimination of people who prefer a different life style then what is “normal” sends a very bad exmaple to young children. It convinces them that this way of acting is acceptable not only towards the community but also towards other people that they may not agree with in another situation.

Children at a young age shouldn’t be discriminated against for being involved in the LGBTQA+ community. Children are very vulnerable, and a very easy target to manipulate their way of thinking. There have been reports of children being told by teachers that having a crush on the same gender is wrong. How having same-sex parents is wrong, a boy that wanted to be feminine is bad or vise versa with a girl. Some schools even have special class rooms for children to prevent them from becoming involved wiht homosexuality and/or the thought of transitioning. Schools nor teachers have the right to teach what is or is not proper when it comes to personal preference(s), and desired sexual orientation(s), and identity. Instead of trying to “correct” their behavior, schools should bring awareness about the LGBTQA+ Community to children who may have questions about it. We should also bring awareness about the community in schools, because it creates different knowledge about how the world treats others with different opinions.

Although a lot of people say that the LGBTQA+ Community is immoral and unnatural, it's unconstitutional to deprive them from basic human and civil rights. People in the community are forced into hiding due to the fear of them losing their homes, jobs, basic human rights, etc. They shouldnt have to fight for the right to recieve equal opportunites to earn privaleges that are naturally given to any heterosexual person. Everyone should have the right to marry whom they want, and for it to be restricted to only the union of a man and woman of origin gender takes away that right. Children shouldn't be exposed to such seclusion, disagreement, and hatred from adult figures learning environments, just because they want to be involved with the LGBTQA+ Community. This community shouldn't be this disseminated by the world. History has shown numerous times that discrmination towards people who are different, and/or live differently than the mass majority only leads to hardships, death, and unknown outcomes. People should be given the same opportunities, rights, and privileges regardless of whom they want to be identified as, and whom they wish to love.