Gay and lesbian rights - An upstream battle.

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Gay And Lesbian Rights: An Upstream Battle

Jared Berney (329338)

Teachers Assistant: Simaq

When I read the statement that said “we shouldn’t devote our efforts to promoting the rights of lesbians and gay men, since there are more important and urgent human rights issues that deserve our attention….” I was taken aback.  As it stands now, nothing seems more important than bringing both equality, and general acceptance, to gay and lesbian people.  Although their have been many mistakes made in the past regarding such human rights issues as slavery, race and gender rights, gay and lesbian rights should be pushed to the top of our list of priorities in that gays and lesbians are the people who appear to be facing the most discrimination and lack of ethical treatment in today’s society; nothing deserves our attention more than what appears to be the biggest form of prejudice currently plaguing our culture – intolerance of those living a homosexual lifestyle, also known as homophobia.  Throughout the course of this essay, the topic of homophobia will be addressed, but more importantly, how it affects those it puts down, as well as a recent example of homophobia and another example of the continuing efforts to promote gay and lesbian rights.

“Homophobia – the irrational fear or hatred of those who love and sexually desire those of the same sex….”1 is how Suzanne Pharr described the topic at hand, also citing it as “… a word that calls up images of loss of freedom, verbal and physical violence, death”.1  This very problem is all too relevant in today society.  Homophobia plays a major role in causing those living a homosexual life to either their years in fear or in danger.  As it stands now, ten to twenty percent of the population1 is hiding the fact they are gay or lesbian because of homophobia.  They are unable to live their lives based on how they believe other people are going to treat them once they find out that they don’t live the same lifestyle as them.  They believe they will be treated differently, harassed and be given an all-round heartless response simply based on their sexual preference.  What is even more disturbing is that in many cases this is what is happening: homophobia leads to, as Pharr depicts it, a “… rejection of friends, threats of loss of employment, and threats upon (his) life; and I have witnessed far worse things happening to other lesbian and gay people: loss of children, beatings, rape, death”.1  For this reason it is crucial that gay and lesbian rights be concentrated on as heavily as possible, even over all others forms of rights.  Despite the continuing efforts that have been made on behalf of such organizations as GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation), homosexual people continue to face prejudice every day of their lives.  Just like everyone else living sexual lives, the topic of relationship’s and the role they play in their lives is an important one.  The fact that such relationship-related factors like children, marriage and adoption are so easily taken away from gay and lesbian people is a major problem that needs to be dealt with, although ideally it should be treated in the exact manner as it is towards heterosexual people (who have no problem attaining these rights).  It has been said accurately that “… homosexuality is simply a matter of sexual identity; which, along with heterosexual identity, is formed in ways the no one conclusively understands”.1  This is the case, which makes it even more difficult to understand why gay and lesbians have not been given the equality they deserve.  However, in order for them to gain this equality, they are going to have to given acceptance from all those around them, which unfortunately at this point, seems unlikely unless something greatly influential is done.

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Problems with gay and lesbian rights are clearly evident today, especially within such institutions as highly religious institutions such as the Catholic School Board, in which students are put through turmoil purely for the fact that they wish to take their gay partner the end-of-the-year school dance.  In what would appear to be crucial stepping stone in gay and lesbian rights, the Court allowed a 17-year old Catholic school student to take his gay companion to the prom:  “In his ruling, (Superior Court Justice) MacKinnon wrote that ‘the idea of equality speaks to the conscience of all humanity dignity and ...

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