Gay Civil Rights: What Does The Future Hold?

Much like the civil rights movement of the sixties, America is now faced with the up rise of civil hate crimes, as well as the discrimination against a very particular group of people. These people are those who choose a different sexual orientation or gender identity than the social norm of the country. When they go outside the social norm, they inadvertently invite tons of trouble into their lives.

In order for gay civil rights to be recognized and respected, it will be an uphill struggle, as is demonstrated in the history of gay civil rights. For example, the struggles that homosexuals have had just to be recognized as a legal family unit, and other governmental entities do not recognize gay marriages as equivalent to traditional different-sex weddings. Even though the couple is committed, the government entities will not permit them to have a legal wedding, like heterosexual people do.

Laws protecting the civil rights of homosexuals are getting much better right now. There are some new laws regarding living and employment conditions that prohibit discriminating against homosexuals. This is giant progress for gay civil rights, but it does not promise that homosexuals will have the same opportunities to succeed as straight people do. For example, some employers are exploiting loopholes in the laws, mostly in "right-to-work" states.

Crimes against gays are declining, but this doesn't mean that they really are becoming less frequent. Because gay civil rights are still being worked out, many gays feel afraid or ashamed to report crimes that have been committed against them. This means that the overall statistic is incorrect, as many crimes are either not reported at all, or are reported as some other type of crime.

Conservatives present the largest opposition to the overall gay movement. These people, who believe in one particular way of doing things, are very hard to change. Usually these conservatives are based in some hard religion that does not allow changes. Gays are viewed as an abomination. Because people think like this, people die every day.

Gay civil rights are changing and emerging to give these people more protection and freedom from those who would harm them. It's probably never going to be perfect, but there are many ways we can learn from the civil rights movement in the sixties. It is vital that people start talking about what is going on as well. If the world knows what is going on, then it may be easier to stop it.

The history of gay rights shows us that it will be a long and tedious project to obtain total equality and equal gay civil rights. Many areas still do not see gay marriage as a legal binding contract. Many new laws have been instated to make sure that housing and employment opportunities do not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. Though there are fewer crimes against gays, they aren't really any less frequent. Conservatives are probably the biggest opponents of the gay movement. They feel that gays are against nature, and should be hated for being gay.

- Jayson Johnson