The current state of LGBT rights

With gay marriage becoming legal in all states on June 26th of this year, many are quick to declare that the LGBT community has the same rights and quality of life as other Americans. This is far from the truth. LGBT individuals still aren’t guaranteed protection from things like job and housing discrimination in over half of U.S. states, and schools could be doing more things in order to ensure that LGBT students feel safe and welcome.

Many LGBT individuals keep a part of themselves a secret, sometimes out of necessity and other times because of how unwelcoming society can be. Many LGBT students hide their true sexuality and gender identity because of the possible negative outcomes. A nationwide study of gay and lesbian high school students found that 24% of gay males and 11% of lesbians reported that they were bullied 10 times or more during the school year because of their sexual orientation and a different study found that 65% of LGBT middle and high school students heard homophobic slurs frequently. In some areas, transgender students aren’t allowed to use school facilities that match their gender identity. Schools could be doing a lot more to make sure that LGBT students are treated equally, such as educating students on sexual and gender identities, ensuring that trans students can use the facilities of their choice, and offering helpful resources specifically for LGBT students.

One of the most terrifying possibilities for LGBT teenagers is unaccepting parents. 50% of gay males experience a negative reaction when coming out and 26% of those people were kicked out of their home. Some unaccepting parents even send their kids to conversion therapy, which claims to have the ability to turn a gay person straight. Studies on these programs have found that they are ineffective at changing someone’s sexuality. These harmful programs often tell participants that they will not be loved and accepted by their friends, family, and God if they don’t change. When participants fail to change who they are some take their own lives, having been convinced by these programs that God would hate them less if they took their own life, than if they continued to live out their life as gay. Programs like this are recognized as dangerous by medical groups such as the American Psychological Association, the National Association of Social Workers, and the American Medical Association. Despite being recognized as unsafe and ineffective, only three states have laws that ban this harmful practice.

After the challenges of high school, things can get even harder for LGBT people. Only 22 states have laws that make it illegal to discriminate based on sexual identity and 19 states that do the same for gender identity. This means that in over half of the U.S., you can be fired or evicted just for being gay or trans. There is no reason why people should be able to fire someone or kick them out just because of their gender identity or sexuality. Employment discrimination extends to our military, where transgender people are currently not allowed to serve openly. “Don’t ask, Don’t tell,” the ban on homosexual men and women serving openly in the military, was lifted in 2011. Considering that this was only four years ago, it is a painful reminder of just how poorly the U.S. treats LGBT people, and how lawmakers are in no particular hurry to make sure that they have the same rights as all other Americans.

Progress takes time; that’s something everyone understands, but with the current lack of protection for LGBT youth and adults, it’s disappointing that things aren’t moving faster. As a nation, America still has a long way to go until LGBT people have the same rights as everyone else. Hopefully now that the gay marriage debate is resolved, these important issues can now become the main points of discussion. All Americans should work hard in order to make the difficult challenges that LGBT people still face well known to all, in order to ensure all Americans can enjoy the same quality of life.