This summer, the Supreme Court states that gay and lesbian Americans have the right to get married. This is certainly an important step in the new Civil Rights movement for LGBT equality, and has led to a more perfect United States. However, LGBT people are still not completely free from discrimination and abuse, there is much more society can, and should do, in order to advance LGBT equality. In order to advance the cause of LGBT equality, society must create and enforce federal LGBT worker protections in order to protect LGBT adults and must ban gay conversion therapy in order to protect LGBT children. Federal LGBT worker protections would protect civil liberties, incentivize society to become more tolerant, and promote economic …show more content…
The message that America would send by passing ENDA would be that a person’s sexual orientation, much like their race and sex, is an aspect of their personhood that should not impair their ability to receive employment.
Some state than ENDA would hurt economic growth, and small business owners will be hurt by additional government rules. However, ENDA would actually promote economic growth. As Crosby Burns states in his article on the LGBT policy journal at the Harvard Kennedy school, ENDA would increase business efficiency, “allowing them [LGBT employees] to focus on completing their core workplace responsibilities rather than censoring themselves out of fear of unfairness and discrimination.” Making businesses liable for discriminatory practices within their hiring process will help make LGBT employees more effective, and will help the business as a whole. ENDA would help corporations avoid lawsuits, as it would provide “clarity and uniformity into the legal system and ultimately help firms avoid costly discrimination-related lawsuits” (Burns).
The best refutation of ENDA is the religious right 's argument. The idea of a Christian couple being forced to hire LGBT adults, and in the process, violating their conscience, some say, is a clear violation of religious liberty. However, that is not the case, since ENDA clearly has a religious exception.
A great amount of problems still exist in LGBT workplaces, rights in the sphere have evolved and there are signs for a better and brighter future for the community. “The government has announced that it will be advancing legislation to amend section 37.1 of the employment equality act, which currently allows religious—run institutions, such as schools and hospitals to discriminate against LGBT employees. But the amendment will not protect every worker, as Rob Buchanan reports.” (BUCHANAN)
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
On June 26, 2015, the US Supreme Court ruled that the US Constitution guarantees the right for same-sex couples to marry. Many conservative groups do NOT agree with this decision. The gay marriage debate has been simmering for as long as I can remember. The four articles I have selected give information from four different perspectives including that of liberals, conservatives, homosexuals, and orthodox Jews. With so many differing opinions, one can understand why it's been so hard for the nation to come to agree on this issue.
There are laws now that allow LGBT same sex marriage in 35 states, but there aren’t any laws that protect them from other situations. A nondiscrimination protection means if a gay worker were to wear his/her wedding ring to their place of employment, they could be legally fired. We are all human beings trying to seek the same things, so what makes a heterosexual and a homosexual any different in the workplace? This isn’t an unnecessary law. In fact, we need to unite as one and help those who are being discriminated against for wanting the same things we all want. As a human, this shouldn’t even be an issue, but sadly enough it is a huge problem that needs to be addressed. “LGBT workers often cannot extend their health insurance coverage to their partners or children. Without family and marriage tax deductions, LGBT families may pay additional taxes” said Laura E. Durso, Director of CAP’s LGBT Research and Communications
This order, “affects nearly 24,000 companies with 28 million collective employees, which is close to one fifth of the U.S.’s workforce,” according to the article ‘President Obama Signs Executive Order on LGBT Workplace Equality.’ (Love) By signing this order, President Obama helped many people be able to have the choice and freedom to be who they are without worry of being judged by others. Just recently the VA published a new guide that gives gay couples information on knowing what benefits that are received under the new laws. The executive order helps students by giving them a chance to come into a workplace or school where equality is a common practice. When applying for college homosexuality and gender identification is not always seen right away and campuses are doing what they can to ensure that the stigma does not affect students from applying into their colleges. ‘Issue Brief: The LGBT Community and Affirmative Action in the United States’ states the following, “Since sexual minorities could still be considered oppressed or disadvantaged groups, one proposed way to end prejudice is to actively “recruit” homosexuals into the workplace and universities.”
This newspaper article discusses how more business such as Walmart and the Apple store are beginning to call on office holders to reject the laws designed to give business the right to deny service based on one’s sexuality. This article gives an opposing view of my stance that businesses should be able to deny service. In addition, it justifies my argument that more people are becoming more excepting off the LGBT community, however only a small portion. The information from this site is accurate and had reliable information to support its research and argument. Furthermore, the article is geared toward all American people as its goal is to provide information of what corporations are doing to stop legislation denying service to the LGBT community. The corporations mentioned in the article have a huge voice and can make a large impact on government, as they hope to one day make a
Title VII of the Civils Rights Act of 1964 is a U.S. federal law that prohibits employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin, and religion. Title V11 applies to private and public universities, local, state and federal governments, labor organizations and employment agencies. Today, the conversation surrounding discrimination has increasingly been based on race and gender and has emerged as an issues that many employers are trying to address in workforce development. Unfortunately, there are other groups that have similar attention or protection under U.S. laws and if so, they are still facing discrimination. LGBT employees are a group that has received minimal attention when it
America is a country built on the ideals and morals of freedom and equality and the hopes that it is attainable to all. Yet more than 111 million lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) people in America are still denied state level protections against discrimination in the workplace (Halloran 5). One of the most important things in sustainable development is achieving LGBTQ equality. It would improve the lives of many people across the country. Achieving equal health care and other services for LGBTQ people reduces transmission and progression of disease, which would lead to an overall healthier community.
The debate on whether the constitution should be changed to allow gays/lesbians legal status, whereby the partners are protected while in the institution of marriage is a heated debated which has been ongoing in many years. There are those states whereby the rights of gays/lesbians to have legal marriages have been recognized, but in most of the states their right to legal marriage have not been recognized. This essay looks at the reasons why the American constitution should be amended to ensure that all states across the United States recognizes the rights of gays/lesbians to have legal marriages. The argument will focus on the impact that lack of legal marriages have on the gay and lesbian partners and the reasons why constitutional amendment can only be the best solution to resolve the issues of the rights for the gay community to a legal marriage.
Virginia case opened the door to a new civil rights movement. This time, it is about the rights of the LGBT community. Only in recent years has homosexuality become acceptable in the public eye. Regardless of the laws stating we cannot discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation, homosexual individuals are still treated as second class citizens. Gay men and women were denied the right to marry whom they loved. Couples had to fight for their love one state at a time until finally, on June 26th, 2015, the United States supreme court ruled that discriminating against same sex marriages was unconstitutional and “states must recognize same sex unions” (Chappell 2015).
The United States of America should adopt a federal law that gives rights, protection and recognition of LGBT people based on sexual orientation and gender identity as constitutionally and respectfully equal as others uniformly throughout the nation.
The LGBT community has made new laws each day to bring equality to all. “Throughout its, America has symbolized equality of opportunity for people of all races, origins, religions and creeds, serving as a beacon of hope for anyone seeking a better life. However, despite its founding principles of equality and acceptance, the United States also has a long history of denying basic rights to certain people” (LGBT Equality). When the US discriminates against a certain thing people retaliate and rise up and try to make new laws to help their cause. The LGBT community has been striving to bring equality in many ways. The LGBT community has made great strides in gaining equality of same-sex marriage, gay adoption, and transgender equality.
Looking back throughout history at the rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender individuals, it isn’t hard to see that we have made the majority of our strides in the past 10 years. As a society we have decided the time is now to put an end to the lack of rights for people of different sexual orientations. Accepting LGBT individuals and providing them the same rights and protections as all other Americans makes us a more united, respectable Country. Everyone deserves equal treatment and opportunities regardless of what their sexual orientation may be.
M. V. Lee Badgett mentions in his article “What Obama Should Do About Workplace Discrimination,” that this would make a great first step on what concerns banning workplace discrimination against homosexuals by federal contractors. If the government, the structural system of our country, is not only willing to accept all but pose as a model of approval towards all kinds of sexual orientations, then so should we, the people, who make part of the nation. Discrimination against this group of people is unfortunate, but extremely common nowadays; more and more individuals are being harassed, not compensated with adequate wages, and/or fired from their jobs because of the way they sexually identify themselves. This strikes a fear in gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender employees who feel as though they must produce more than the average worker in order to not be affected or expelled from their jobs, often leading them to not take illness days off, vacations, and to perhaps be more productive than the majority of their colleagues. Badgett explains that by issuing an executive order against workplace discrimination, President Obama will be able to gradually bring back equality to the nation, providing parallel opportunities for all and reducing stress, fear, as well as death and unemployment rates in the gay community.
hroughout mankind's history, gays and lesbians have become fairly known as another scapegoat to societies venomous opinions about accepting anything new or unfamiliar in order to balance out any negative baggage left behind by previous generations. In order to accept them for who they are, we must not abolish anymore given rights from them due to the misconception that homosexuality could break the mindset through fear and righteousness of Christ; that we must beat them down until eradicated from the planet. Restricting all equal rights to the LGBTQ community could threaten the pillar of society and eventually, the destruction of equal common grounds for everyone. Granting equal based rights and legal marriage rights under the authorized laws, must be expanded far enough to not only the common men and women, but as well for the gays and lesbians too on this planet.