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Katie Nash
1/6/14
English 4B
Argument Essay
The Situation of LGBTQ Community in the US
In the US there is a rising debate over whether or not the acts against the LGBTQ
(lesbian, gay, bi, transgender and queer) community should be criminalized. I believe that
everyone has a freedom of choice, but that there should be certain consequences to those choices.
Choice should have the freedom of choice, their own rights, and awareness over physical and
emotional abuse.
Everyone has choices. There is never any situation where you don’t have a choice. In my
life I have had the influence of the LGBTQ, and I can’t say they have ever been anything but
good. Personally I believe that everyone deserves the chance to make their own choices, whether
or not other people think they are wrong. Marriage is a large choice in people’s life. Straight
marriage has always been the norm, even encouraged throughout history. In most of the major
religions the “holy matrimony” is between a man and a woman. Gay marriage, on the other hand
has been persecuted and people have even been killed over it. Who are we to decide how people
should feel? If that’s the way people feel then they should have that right. Gay and queer people
should not be criminalized because they want a right that the rest of their friends, neighbors and
even enemies receive.
Along with people taking away other people’s rights, there have been movements and
actions that are unacceptable. People are being persecuted for the way they feel about each other.
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I don’t know how that can be an acceptable reason to persecute someone. According to a source,
4 in 10 of youth say that their communities aren’t accepting of LGBTQ people. It is hard for
youth to come out to people, and that shouldn’t be the case. In schools the terror is even worse.
LGBTQ youth are twice as likely as their peers to admit to have been physically abused in
school. People should not be abused for how they feel. There should be a punishment for those
people who abuse and mistreat these young teens and even adults. As of right now the only laws
that even come close to punishing people for this are Anti-hate laws, and those are often
smoothed over or ignored by the law.
Often the main focus of the abuse and things are on the youth, but more times than not,
adults are as much or more susceptible to physical and emotional abuse. In the workplace, people
are often not accepted for jobs simply because the owner “Doesn’t like gays.” That is not a very
professional outlook; people seem to work under the impression that for whatever reason
LGBTQ people don’t work the same way as heterosexual people. Yet, there are no laws saying
that a person can or cannot be hired based on their sexual orientation. I realize this is a difficult
subject to please people, but that can’t be legal!
In my life, I have physically seen people change the way they think and act toward a
person when they find out that person is a queer. After asking some people I happen to know
they said that anything a person says that is discriminating, even if they “didn’t mean it that
way”, stays with them for years. A very close friend, who is my best friend, told me the first time
that someone called them a particular slur they “apologized” by telling them that it was okay
because they didn’t really mean it. That is not okay. There are certain things that just are not
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okay to say in our society and things like that should be on that list. People are so hesitant to
come out now that many stay in hiding, a fake life, for their entire lives. There needs to be laws
to protect them, to make them feel safe in our society.
In our general public there are pictures that the public paints that are not accurate. Very
often people are misinformed about trans/gender fluid people, a thing that is often smoothed over
to prevent awkward situations. Why is this awkward? If my child told me that they wanted to be
female instead of male then I would certainly try to help them the best I could. Too often people
are ridiculed and even shunned because of their choice to change who they are. People often say
that the transgender people are confused and that they just need to “find themselves”. I asked this
to a friend, and he said that, “I’d say everyone is confused about something, but I know what I
feel, and identifying outside the binary is the first time something to do with my gender hasn’t
been confusing.” To me that is very powerful. I am very confused about many things, and I am
glad that for them they are comfortable with what they are. These people know what they are,
and society is ridiculing them for finally finding peace. We all deserve that peace, and we
deserve to be able to maintain it.
There are some people who may say that gay and queer people are, “Acts against god.” I
would like to tell them that god said, in many different religions, “Love thy neighbor.” What
should he care that your neighbor doesn’t follow the binary codes of gender? When people pull
religion into an argument as a safety, especially during persecution, that isn’t appropriate. There
is a separation of religion and state for a reason. The law should be unbiased and fair.
As you can see, the LGTBQ are facing many things, and none of them suffer criminal
justice. I don’t think that those people should get off that easy, that they deserve to be punished. I
hope that you do too. Make a move, be the change you want to see in your life.
Works Cited
Bullying Statistics. Gay Bullying Statistics. 2013. 6 January 2014.
<http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/gay-bullying-statistics.html>.
HRC. Human Rights Campaign. 2011. 6 January 2014. <http://www.hrc.org/issues/workplace>.
—. Human Rights Campaign. 2011. 6 January 2014. <http://www.hrc.org/youth/view-statistics>.
Mustanski, Dr. White Paper: A Healthy Chicago for LGBT Youth. 9 February 2013. 6 January 2014.
<http://www.impactprogram.org/youth/impact-white-paper2012/?gclid=CL_a99606rsCFVFgfgod6DgA3Q>.