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Effectiveness of hate crime laws
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The fight to legalize gay marriage has won many battles in recent years. It has become available in Canada, England, New Zealand, and here in the United States it is now legal in 13 states (religioustolerence.org). Gay couples have become more prominently accepted in modern society, appearing in popular TV shows such as “Modern Family” and “The New Normal”. Gay marriage is even the inspiration for popular songs such as “Same Love” by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis. Even with same sex couples being more commonly accepted, there are still conservative and religious leaders that remain opposed. It is this opposition that has prevented gay marriage from becoming legal in most of the country. Gays and lesbians are Americans just like everyone else, and deserve the same rights. Discrimination to a minority is supposed to be against the law, but still somehow manages to exist for the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) community. Preventing same sex couples from marrying is not only denying them their civil rights, it is also discriminating against their innocent family members.
Gay marriage is just another hurdle to be overcome by Americans in their pursuit of freedom and equality. Gays and lesbians are not the first Americans to be denied their civil rights. Woman and interracial couples were also denied equal rights when it came to marriage for many years. In the beginning, women had little say in whom or when they married. Their marriages were arranged by their fathers or oldest male guardian. These marriages had little to do with love, and more to do with social status, or what could be gained by the union. Kings married off their daughters to neighboring kingdoms to form alliances; poor families with a beautiful daughter would...
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"The Constitution of the United States: Amendments 11-27." The Constitution of the United States: Amendments 11-27. . 06 Dec. 2013. Web
"Facts and Statistics." Ccainstitute.org Jul. 2012. . 06 Dec. 2013.Web
Pappas, Stephanie.”Why Gay Parents May Be the Best Parents.” Livescience.com. N.p., 15 Nov. 2012.< http://www.livescience.com/17913-advantages-gay-parents.html> 06 Dec 2013.Web
"Predictions by various groups & individuals about the future of same-sex marriage (SSM) in the U.S." Religioustolerence.org.N.p.,n.d. Jul. 2013 . 08 Dec. 2013. Web
Snyder, R. Claire. Gay marriage and democracy: Equality for all. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006.Print
"The United States Constitution - The U.S. Constitution Online - USConstitution.net." Index Page - The U.S. Constitution Online - USConstitution.net. Web. 17 Feb. 2011. .
The constitutional right of gay marriage is a hot topic for debate in the United States. Currently, 37 states have legal gay marriage, while 13 states have banned gay marriage. The two essays, "What’s Wrong with Gay Marriage?" by Katha Pollitt and "Gay "Marriage": Societal Suicide" by Charles Colson provide a compare and contrast view of why gay marriage should be legal or not. Pollitt argues that gay marriage is a constitutional human right and that it should be legal, while Colson believes that gay marriage is sacrilegious act that should not be legal in the United States and that “it provides a backdrop for broken families and increases crime rates” (Colson, pg535). Both authors provide examples to support their thesis. Katha Pollitt provides more relevant data to support that gay marriage is a constitutional right and should be enacted as law in our entire country, she has a true libertarian mindset.
"The United States Constitution - The U.S. Constitution Online - USConstitution.net." Index Page - The U.S. Constitution Online - USConstitution.net. Web. 09 Aug. 2010. .
The United States of America, as a whole, has pushed for rights and equality for any and all people. Gay rights and racial equality have received an ample amount of support as well as opposition. Even bringing up the other side’s argument may cause a debate in almost any environment. Today, Americans are easily offended by things that don’t agree with what they believe. America is full of passionate people who always have a cause to fight for or against. Gay marriage has been opposed countless times on local, state, and national levels. “Almost two- thirds of Republicans oppose the Supreme Court’s backing of gay marriage, according to Reuters/Ipsos Poll ” (Reuters). Even though another online survey stated that “more than half of Americans support it,” they still
Although the conclusion of the Civil War during the mid-1860s demolished the official practice of slavery, the oppression and exploitation of African Americans has continued. Although the rights and opportunities of African Americans were greatly improved during Reconstruction, cases such a 1896’s Plessy v. Ferguson, which served as the legal basis for segregation, continue to diminish the recognized humanity of African Americans as equal people. Furthermore, the practice of the sharecropping system impoverished unemployed African Americans, recreating slavery. As economic and social conditions worsened, the civil rights movement began to emerge as the oppressed responded to their conditions, searching for equality and protected citizenship.With such goals in mind, associations like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which came to the legal defense of African Americans and aided the march for civil rights reforms, emerged. By working against the laws restricting African Americans, the NAACP saw progress with the winning of cases like Brown v. Board of Education, which allowed the integration of public schools after its passing in 1954 and 1955. In the years following the reform instituted by the ruling of Brown v. Board of Education, the fervor of the civil rights movement increased; mass nonviolent protests against the unfair treatment of blacks became more frequent. New leaders, such as Martin Luther King, manifested themselves. The civil rights activists thus found themselves searching for the “noble dream” unconsciously conceived by the democratic ideals of the Founding Fathers to be instilled.
Washington Post. Survey of 1,002 Adults Concerning Gay Marriage. New York: 27 Feb.-2 Mar. 2014. Web. 9 Mar. 2014.
"The United States Constitution - The U.S. Constitution Online - USConstitution.net." The U.S. Constitution Online - USConstitution.net. Steve Mount, 2010. Web. 28 May 2010. .
The history of the gay rights movement goes as far back as the late 19th century. More accurately, the quest by gays to search out others like themselves and foster a feeling of identity has been around since then. It is an innovative movement that seeks to change existing norms and gain acceptance within our culture. By 1915, one gay person said that the gay world was a "community, distinctly organized" (Milestones 1991), but kept mostly out of view because of social hostility. According to the Milestones article, after World War II, around 1940, many cities saw their first gay bars open as many homosexuals began to start a networking system. However, their newfound visibility only backfired on them, as in the 1950's president Eisenhower banned gays from holding federal jobs and many state institutions did the same. The lead taken by the federal government encouraged local police forces to harass gay citizens. "Vice officers regularly raided gay bars, sometimes arresting dozens of men and women on a single night" (Milestones). In spite of the adversity, out of the 1950s also came the first organized groups of gays, including leaders. The movement was small at first, but grew exponentially in short periods of time. Spurred on by the civil rights movement in the 1960s, the "homophile" (Milestones) movement took on more visibility, picketing government agencies and discriminatory policies. By 1969, around 50 gay organizations existed in the United States. The most crucial moment in blowing the gay rights movement wide open was on the evening of July 27, 1969, when a group of police raided a gay bar in New York City. This act prompted three days of rioting in the area called the Stonewall Rio...
Wolf, Richard. “Timeline: Same-Sex marriage through the years.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 26 June 2015,
Singleton, Dave. "40 Years Later: A Look Back at the Turning Point for Gay Rights." AARP. AARP, June 2009. Web. 26 Sept. 2013.
As a United States citizen who was born in the new millennium, I was brought up with the idea that, as stated in the Declaration of Independence, “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” This statement was one of the main sources of fuel for the Civil Rights Movements in the mid 1950’s/60’s in the United States. Minority groups have often been mistreated in the United States culminating in movements much like that of the women’s suffrage movement, civil rights movements and now a movement toward equality for the LGBTQIA. In the last few decades a new minority group, lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex and allies, and their struggle to attain their right to the pursuit of happiness. This small makes up roughly 4 percent of the US population. Though many say that gay marriage will weaken the moral foundation of our country, it should be legalized, not only because banning it is unconstitutional, but also because strips people of their human rights
Redlingshafer, JoEllen. "The LGBT Movement Must Look Past Gay Marriage." Policymic. Policymic, 2013. Web. 23 Sept. 2013.
Legal marriage is the right of all Americans regardless of their sexual orientation. Gay marriage is certainly a hot button issue. It invokes an emotional dialogue filled with passion, rage, hate and fear. However, at the base of it all, are two people who are in a committed relationship living normal and productive lives and contributing to society in a positive manner. This issue is being debated in every state of the union, and will eventually go to the Supreme Court.
The treatment of the LGBT community in American Society is a social injustice. What most people think is that they just want to be able to marry one another and be happy but that’s not it. They want to be treated like humans and not some weird creatures that no one has ever seen before. They want to be accepted for who them are and not what people want them to be and they deserve the right to be who they are just the same as any other human being. After all the discrimination they have endured they should be allowed to be who they are and be accepted as equals just like people of different skin color did in the times of segregation. We have a long way to go as a country but being the greatest country in the world in the eyes of many great America will make big steps to make things fair.
There are many opponents of gay people as it is, and they all have their reasons to dislike the idea of permitting them get married. One of the main reasons is that the primary purpose of marriage is procreation. Because gay couples are unable to have children, they should not be allowed to marry (Schiffen 495). Another main argument is that the word marriage means the union of one man and one woman. This is a long-standing theme of most major Western religions. Under a proposed bill known as the Defense of Marriage act, marriage is defined as “a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife.” Furthermore, it defines a spouse as “ a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or wife” (What 1). Under these guidelines, it is quite obvious that gay couples would not be eligible for marriage. People against homosexual marriage also say that it is a person’s choice to be gay. Since the individual chooses to be a homosexual, they should not be given special privileges. Another argument that you hear is that these couples should not get married simply because of the torment and ridicule they would be faced with in their everyday lives. There are news reports from across America telling about how a gay person was beaten or killed just because they were looked at as different. Some of these people would end up the target of verbal abuse and maybe even physical abuse, just because some heterosexual people see them as different.