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Sexual orientation discrimination in the workplace
Discrimination in the workplace lgbt essay
LGBT within the workplace
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was also three other men who were gay that worked for the company but wore men clothing. Robinson suggested that it is best not to use labels (such as Mr., Mrs., Ms., and Miss., or he/she) to prevent sexual orientation discrimination in the workplace. The way I handle someone in the workplace that was LGBT, would be not to label that person but simply acknowledge them by their names. This was my way in keeping from offending anyone. People still have a long way to go in accepting the LGBT community. Having friends, family, and co-workers of the LGBT community, I have learned so much from them and admire each individual’s work ethics. They have come a long way because they fought for their rights to be able to be treated equally as those that are not of the LGBT community. There are so many other discrimination acts not listed in the book. The book listed jury duty, but it did not mention the full detail of discrimination act. To be able to take time off for jury duty the State laws require employers to give employees time to serve on a jury. Most states prohibit employers from di...
In 1973 a thirty-three year-old Caucasian male named Allan Bakke applied to and was denied admission to the University of California Medical School at Davis. In 1974 he filed another application and was once again rejected, even though his test scores were considerably higher than various minorities that were admitted under a special program. This special program specified that 16 out of 100 possible spaces for the students in the medical program were set aside solely for minorities, while the other 84 slots were for anyone who qualified, including minorities. What happened to Bakke is known as reverse discrimination. Bakke felt his rejections to be violations of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment, so he took the University of California Regents to the Superior Court of California. It was ruled that "the admissions program violated his rights under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment"1 The clause reads as follows:"...No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor without due process of the law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."2 The court ruled that race could not be a factor in admissions. However, they did not force the admittance of Bakke because the court could not know if he would have been admitted if the special admissions program for minorities did not exist.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals people make up more than ten percent of the population; that means if you are sitting in a classroom of thirty, then more than three of those people are LGBT individuals. However, this overwhelmingly large minority group continues to be one of the least protected by the government as well as most heavily targeted by discrimination and hate crimes. Regardless of the powerful shift in public opinion concerning LGBT individuals during the last twenty years, the laws concerning hate crimes have remained invariable.
Explaining how to challenge the discriminatory attitudes that remain rampant throughout the world, Mary Robinson, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in a recent article, quotes the incisive words of Archbishop Desmond Tutu: "We are all of equal worth, born equal in dignity and born free and for this reason deserving respect. . . . We belong in a world whose very structure, whose essence, is diversity almost bewildering in extent, and it is to live in a fool's paradise to ignore this basic fact."
In September 2011, the United States lifted the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy (DADT), which restricted gay, lesbian, and bisexuals from openly serving in the military. This was the first time in American history in which people of every sexual orientation could serve openly (“11 Facts About,” n.d.). This was a momentous occasion for some and not so much for others. For those military members that had served in secret and those members that were firmly against gays and lesbians, this repeal had different meaning. Both groups contained members that have served in the military for years and were products of the Former President Bill Clinton’s 1993 “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. For many soldiers of this era, communication issues arose due to a pre-existing mentality, learned rules and regulations in services reinforced for two decades and the general cultural within combat related fields.
Discrimination refers to the act of making a distinction or segregation that undermines equality. Typically used referring to the violation of equal rights by race, nationality, politic, gender, or sexual orientation which is the subject I will be explaining in this essay.
Tangibly speaking, discrimination occurring on the basis of sexual orientation, while small in aggregate numbers, reaches the same rates as gendered discrimination against women in the workplace, when measured at a per capita rate, and creates a situation in which homosexual and transgendered individuals typically earn 10 or more percent less income than their heterosexual peers (Croteau, 1996). With this, sexual orientation-based discrimination is a significant problem in American society. In a broad sense, the pervasiveness of this discrimination is facilitated by the significant permeation of religious bias into America's ostensibly secular democracy and civil society. Tangibly, large religious organizations such as the Catholic and Mormon Churches have waged proverbial wars against LGBT individuals, seeking to deny them of equal rights in many American states, with a notable example being the battle over Proposition 8 in the state of California (Wilcox & Iida, 2011, 181-183). Furthermore, anti-gay hate speech emerging from groups such as Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church has permeated the country's public sphere, and thus contributed to a climate that is hostile to LGBT individuals, and which has unfortunately seeped into the business environment, in both systematic and idiosyncratic ways (Barrett-Fox, 2010, 4-5).
The United States is an example for diversity and tolerance in the world. There are laws, policies and protection for a person’s rights. However, even with this in place many lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) are still discriminated against. LGBT Today faces discrimination with housing, jobs, relationships, insurance, medical care, adopting, religion and social prejudice. The rights of homosexual persons are not equal to a person who is heterosexual. A person who is homosexual are told that they cannot have the same as others because of their sexual orientation Many times we like to think of the United states of American as a place that has move in to a higher level of progression, unfortunately this is not the case as we continue to only give the same right to all equally.
Stevenson, Bryan A. Illegal Racial Discrimination in Jury Selection. Rep. Montgomery, Alabama: Equal Justice Initiative, 2010. Print.
Many times throughout our history, elected and future leaders will fight a war on poverty. Leaders like George W. Bush will run on his campaign trail saying, “The purpose of prosperity is to leave no one out-to leave no one behind”(2). His words were misleading to the public and the nation as a whole. The LGBT community was left out and left behind under his administration. “In fact, after controlling for a number of factors associated with poverty, rates for LGB adults are higher than for heterosexual adults.”(4). If receiving aid to be helped out of poverty, one had to meet a certain criteria, it should have been clearly stated in his speeches. His effectiveness of ending poverty cost the LGBT community their way of life.
Love, the emotion expressed so widely from friends to romance, is the basis of marriage. The idea of matrimony revolves around the concept of one loving another so deeply that they want to join together and share a life together. The best description for marriage encompasses words like; commitment, unconditional love, and pure beauty from within one's heart. There is no possible way to measure the validity or trueness of these emotions. When a couple decides to wed, they are making the ultimate commitment to each other. Ultimately, the commitment should be a decision made by the couple and no one else. Many other countries practice arranged marriage, which couples are forced by their family to marry. In America, we are blessed with the freedom to choose who we marry. You may think that you have that right, but you actually do not!
One place that the LGBT community is looking for equality is in the workplace. In the United States it is legal for a company or employer to fire or not hire someone based on his or her sexual orientation. Although there are some federal recourse through civil rights and equal employment claims, there’s no national anti-discrimination law to protect the LGBT workers from state discrimination (Stone). Discrimination against the LGBT community in the workplace has begun to take the national spotlight due to the Supreme Court 's 5-4 decision on June 26, 2015. Workplace discrimination against the LGBT community is detrimental and should be unlawful. Not only does an LGBT member experience lower wages, they also are less likely to receive a promotion when running up against other applicants that are not apart of the LGBT community (Isaacs). According to the Center for American Progress, 10-28 percent of the LGBT community receive negative performance evaluations or were passed over for a promotion because of their sexual orientation. Along with those numbers it is also proven that 8-17 percent of gay and transgender workers report being passed over or fired from a job due to their gender orientation (Burns). These numbers are proof that discrimination in the workplace is violating the equality rights of those that are apart of the LGBT
Early April 2016, North Carolina passed a law restricting governments from passing laws that are discriminatory. This law is intended to protect Transgender people from discrimination. Discrimination against Transgenders is against the law, and it has stirred up arguments throughout the nation. With more and more people standing up against discrimination regarding Transgenders, the debate about Transgenders is now nationwide. Unfortunately, Transgenders still continue to face public discrimination due to misinformation and misleading statements from the media.
As of 2015, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community continues to struggle for equal rights held by their straight counterparts. Socially, LGBT persons are subject to discrimination, hate crimes, and stigma, while legally, LGBT persons encounter obstacles that preclude them from basic rights afforded to every other subculture in America. One of the most divisive issues related to LGBT rights has been same-sex marriage, which has been creating conflict both politically and socially dating back to the 1970’s (Finnis, 1997). Those in favor of same-sex marriage argue that regardless of gender or sexual preference, marriage is a basic right that the government has no legitimate interest in blocking. Opponents argue that same-sex marriage is ethically and morally wrong, and they cite reasons spanning from religious beliefs to the creation of a slippery slope that would lead to the demise of the institution of marriage (Volokh, n.d.). Faced with the difficult task of balancing both sides of the equation, President Bill Clinton signed into law the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the policy that will be analyzed in this paper.
Weissmann, Jordan. "There Is No Good Reason to Let Companies Discriminate Against Gay Workers." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 04 Nov. 2013.
When one hears the words “LGBT” and “Homosexuality” it often conjures up a mental picture of people fighting for their rights, which were unjustly taken away or even the social emergence of gay culture in the world in the1980s and the discovery of AIDS. However, many people do not know that the history of LGBT people stretches as far back in humanity’s history, and continues in this day and age. Nevertheless, the LGBT community today faces much discrimination and adversity. Many think the problem lies within society itself, and often enough that may be the case. Society holds preconceptions and prejudice of the LGBT community, though not always due to actual hatred of the LGBT community, but rather through lack of knowledge and poor media portrayal.