“I think the truth is if you really care about the quality of somebody’s life as much as you care about the quality of your own, you have it made.” A famous quote by the one and only Edith Windsor also famously known as Edie. Now, most of you might be wondering who Edie is and why I’m dedicating a whole presentation about her. Well my friends, let’s put it this way. Edie is my hero. Why? Because Edith Windsor, the LGBTQA+ advocate who fought the Defense of Marriage Act, didn’t only win the heart of her spouse, but also the hearts of millions of people because of her dedication to the LGBTQA community and their right of loving openly and freely.
Edith who’s also known as “Edie” was not just an American LGBTQA+ rights activist during her lifetime but also a technology manager at IBM. During college, Edie met Saul Windsor, her ex-husband, but their relationship ended when she fell in love with a classmate known as Thea Spyer. Later, Edie and Thea got engaged and committed since they couldn’t get married at that time. In June 1969, Edie and Thea returned from a vacation in Italy to discover that the Stonewall riot had begun the
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In 2009, the U.S. government ordered Edie to pay 363,000 US dollars in federal taxes on her late wife’s estate. Those were taxes that would’ve been dropped if Edie would’ve been married to a man. Which brings us to the one of many heroic accomplishments by Edie when she was the lead in the Supreme Court of the United States case United States v. Windsor, which successfully overturned Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act and was considered a landmark legal victory for the same-sex marriage movement in the United States. As Edie said, “Today, I’m an out lesbian who just sued the United States of America...and
In addition to lobbying politicians, Pat wanted to change local attitudes so, taking advantage of her popularity as a guest speaker at Rotary, Lions, Toastmasters and other local groups, she made gay equality her subject at every meeting she spoke at, and convinced many locals previously unconcerned by the matter, of the injustices faced by the gay and lesbian communities. “I was so angry that gays were treated differently. We are all equal and should be treated the same. It is unfair and unjust to be judged as a person on your sexuality” she said.
In Vicki L. Eaklor’s Queer America, the experiences of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgender people in the years since the 1970s gay liberation movement are described as a time of transformation and growth. The antigay movement, threatened, now more than ever, created numerous challenges and obstacles that are still prevalent today. Many of the important changes made associated with the movement were introduced through queer and queer allied individuals and groups involved in politics. Small victories such as the revision of the anti discrimination statement to include “sexual orientation”, new propositions regarding the Equal Rights Amendment and legalized abortion, were met in turn with growing animosity and resistance from individuals and groups opposed to liberal and
For years the LGBT community has been consistently denied the same rights as their heterosexual counterparts, and it wasn’t until last year that same sex marriage became legal throughout the United States. However, they are not the only minorities being discriminated against in the United States. That is why Dolores Huerta, a well-known civil rights activist, points out that people who have experienced oppression should come together to achieve equality. In her keynote speech at the 21st National Conference on LGBT Equality, Dolores Huerta uses ethos, logos, and pathos as an effective way to inspire her audience to make a change in society.
In today’s society, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community has been more accepted then in years prior, especially in the 1960’s and years prior to that, when anyone in the LGBT community would be horribly ridiculed, if not tortured. However, there still lies a long road for the LGBT community, as it pertains to human rights, equality, and particularly, marriage equality. Each individual has their own perception on marriage equality, whether it is based on moral basis, or on a humanistic (humane) basis, which is the belief of not denying anyone the right to be who they are, and therefore love who they love. However, as a society, we must examine the facts, as well as ourselves, as we address the debate for marriage equality for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender community.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, along with many other women, packed into a convention on a hot July day to all fight for a common cause; their rights. At the first Women’s Rights convention, Stanton gave a heroic speech that motivated the fight for the cause to be even stronger. Through Stanton’s appliances of rhetorical devices such as emotional, logical, and ethical appeals, she was able to her win her point, change the opinions of many, and persuade people to follow her.
While the gay rights movement has been around for some time, the things that they fight for is forever changing. Currently it is fighting for the right to marry, and receive all the rights straight people get when they marry. Married privilege is like white privilege; married people have more rights then non-married people, no matter what sex a person is married to. These benefits include insurance coverage’s under a spouse policy, social security benefit inheritance, receiving pension and personal assets without taxation, visitation rights at the hospital without question and making health care decisions (LaSala, 2007). In addition to all that, there is a social benefit to being married; it represents a healthy, developed and normal relationship (LaSala, 2007). Before reading this article, I never thought about why married people are given all of these rights. I never thought about where they came from, who made them up, or why they were even made. Why are we fighting for legalizing same-sex marriage a...
Edith Ewing Bouvier-Beal and her namesake “Little Edie” Bouvier-Beal live in a dilapidated mansion in the Hamptons in squalor. “Big Edie” rarely leaves her bed which is surrounded by trash and refuse. She even cooks using a hot plate from her bed. Little Edie reluctantly serves her mother, and feeds the multiple cats and wild animals such as raccoons that populate the filthy flea ridden house
This was seen a major victory for gay rights in Canada, and championed by many activists. While this was not the end of the fight, many in the community saw this as the last great fight for rights, but it begged the questions who actually wanted these rights. Not everyone in the gay community wanted to be a part of the so-called “nuclear family” and criticized the idea that they should have to fit within traditional heterosexual norms in order to be considered legitimate (Warner 2002, 218). This leads to a bigger question about the exact nature of rights LGBT activists were fighting for throughout history, and how that affected how they fought.
One day in May 1988, Rebecca Wight and Claudia Brenner were backpacking on the Appalachian Trail in south central Pennsylvania. Claudia was thirty-one, and Rebecca was twenty-eight. Along the trail, they encountered a stranger who tried to involve them in conversation. Suddenly, the quiet of the afternoon was shattered by gunfire. Claudia was hit in the arm, neck, and face. Rebecca struck in the back and head; the shot in her back exploded her liver and killed her. The stranger, Stephen Roy Carr, shot them because they were lesbians (Oliver 8). There were laws against this of course. However, unfortunately for people who identify as homosexual, not many of these laws were followed for the reason that discrimination against gay people was clearly evident in America. When this incident happened, a social movement was well under way. This movement, of course, was the gay rights movement. One of the earlier accomplishments of the movement was in 1951, when the First National Gay Origination was founded. Yet, during the 1950s, it would have been immensely illegal and dangerous to register any kind of pro-gay organizations (Head). The gay rights movement continues to create and achieve goals even today. Many people did not support the movement; however, fortunately the gay rights movement had many followers from homosexual to straight people all over the country. Some memorable leaders would be Kathy Kozachenko, first openly gay women elected into politics, and Harvey Milk, first openly gay man elected into politics. In 1977 Harvey Milk won a seat in the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. It was there that Milk delivers a famous and inspirational speech which would later be called the “Hope Speech”. The main idea to take away from th...
I apologize for my no call no show today! This morning was not a morning that I could win. Something you don't know about me is that I suffer from Bipolar Depression. For me this has been a struggle that I have been dealing with in undergrad that I have not until this past year really learned what is going on with my body. This morning was the final blow to my self that yet again that I am going to have to change medications or something in that nature will have to happen. I have been in denial telling myself that it is that I am not getting enough sleep or this or that, but this morning I could not will myself to get myself out of bed and that is a problem. I am taking the appropriate steps in contacting my doctor to get an appointment
The fight for gay rights was never an easy task. Those involved suffered many tragedies and withstood a great deal of anguish because the world didn’t accept them for who they were. Still, there were parts of the Gay Rights Movement worthy of celebration. Despite the fact that homophobia and the mistreatment of the LGBT community still exists today, various actions throughout the decades have furthered the fight for tolerance by opening more opportunities, increasing the amount of support, and creating more equality for those involved.
She help/supported the Equality Act which protects LGBT (stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) nationwide from discrimination in credit, education, employment, housing, federal financial assistance, jury service and public accommodations according to The Huffington Post (Terkel). She has even criticized the Republicans' rejection of marriage equality. Hillary advanced LGBT rights abroad and enforced stronger anti-discrimination regulations within the State Department. She declared on the global stage that “gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights.” She led the effort to pass the first-ever U.N. Resolution on LGBT Human Rights and launched the Global Equality Fund. She even ended State Department regulations that denied same-sex couples and their families’ equal rights. Eventually she urged the Supreme Court to rule in favor of nationwide marriage equality. As she stated, “We should ban discrimination against LGBT Americans and their families so they can live, learn, marry, and work just like everybody else.” Clinton fought for all our LGBT and was proud to celebrate this historic victory for our
It is uneasy to accept the fact that the way our society is set up is changing; things are not what our history books have said to be anymore. Some changes are, indeed are for the worse, causing despair and agony, but, there are some changes that bring people closer, help spread love and have the vibrancy of beautifying unexplainable emotions flowing. This beautiful change is spreading like the unstoppable virus, captivating the hearts of those stone cold citizens who prefer to live the way our “norms” are set up. This beautiful change is no other than love, same-sex love. Or decades, those who were lesbian or gay have struggled, bullied, tortured, and disowned by their friend and families and all toward what? Because they were different, because they did not live up to the society 's norms, because they fell in love. Our society needs to stop defining the meaning of love; let our hearts define it
Have you ever thought how much progress the LGBT community has made and how it affects other people? The gay rights movement was and is currently a movement that “strives to end all discrimination towards the LGBT community” (Redlingshafer). As early as 1924, the Society for Human Rights in Chicago becomes United States’ earliest known gay rights organization (“Milestones in the American Gay Rights Movement”). However, most people recognize the Stonewall riot in 1969 as being the beginning of the gay rights movement. Almost ninety years later, society and the government have progressed over time and are still growing. Harvey Milk, author of “The Hope Speech”, was a politician who led a portion of the gay rights movement. Also, a more recent and well known leader of the movement is Dan Savage, the creator of the “It Gets Better Project”. The followers of the gay rights movement are not just homosexual. There are followers and supporters of every gender, race, and sexual orientation. The gay rights movement and its issues are represented in “The Hope Speech” by Harvey Milk.
"Free And Equal In Dignity And LGBT Rights." Vital Speeches Of The Day 78.2 (2012): 45-48. Academic Search Premier. Web. 17 Jan. 2014.