Lgbtq Marriage Equality

For hundreds of years, being anything other than heterosexual was considered criminal and immoral. Nationally, the United States has made great strides in the past few years regarding LGBTQ rights, including educating society about the LGBTQ community. The landmark civil rights case Obergefell v. Hodges legalized same-sex marriage in 2015, so many couples have been able to get married in certain states where their marriage was previously against the law. The battle for marriage equality can be traced back to 1970, when two University of Minnesota students, Richard John Baker and James Michael McConnell, applied for a marriage license. After the District Court clerk denied their application, the students sued him. Their case made it all the

One legal act that tremendously weakened LGBTQ rights was the Defense of Marriage Act, signed by President Clinton to legally define marriage as between a man and a woman. Under the federal government, same-sex married couples could not receive the benefits and legal recognition that heterosexual couples could. DOMA was not the only hindrance to the journey toward marriage equality. United States president George W. Bush was a firm vocal opponent of legalizing same-sex marriage, stating, “marriage is between a man and a woman.”. With an executive branch opposing equal rights from 2001 to 2009, it became very difficult for equal rights activists to make great national strides toward equality for LGBTQ

While the nation has slowly become more accepting towards gay individuals, there is still much bias about transgender individuals. LGBTQ people, especially those of color, experience disproportionately high rates of violence compared to straight, cisgender people. According to the FBI database, bias against sexual orientation and gender identity accounted for 19.2 percent of hate crimes reported in 2016, with sexuality the third most common single-bias category following religion, than race. National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs found that while transgender survivors and victims represented only 19 percent of anti-LGBT violence reported to the organization, transgender women of color accounted for 50 percent of homicide victims. So far in 2017, there has been nearly one homicide a week of a LGBTQ person in the United States. Not only is violence a major concern for the LGBTQ community but poverty is a pressing matter as well. Due to anti-LGBTQ discrimination there are harmful effects of one’s economic well being which leads to high rates of unemployment and homelessness of LGBTQ members. The Pew research center found data concluding LGBTQ workers are more likely to earn less annually compared to the general U.S. population as well as transgender respondents are nearly four times more likely to earn below $10,000 a year than the average American. Homelessness