Angely Rincon Professor Massey-Jimenez ENC 1101 13 November 2013 Respecting Each Other as Humans Over many years,

discrimination has gone passed the usual racial issues and has moved on to include sexual orientation. People of todays society have stopped accepting people for who they are and have begun judging them on how they dress, act, or who they love. Over the course of humanity, homosexuality is something that has gone through a never-ending journey of immense ups and downs as times change. Society is currently experiencing a rough time for the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) community. Some people of modern-day society are completely against their community. Some do not even think they deserve the simple human right to wed or provide health care for their partners. These discriminations are sickening to see happen daily. People that dont respect other peoples way of living are ignorant and cause unnecessary conflict in everyday life. From school playgrounds to corporate offices, bottom line is people need to respect one another as equal members of society regardless of sexual orientations. In 1969, there were not many places where homosexuals could be live open and free lives. Laws prohibiting homosexuality in public caused private businesses and gay establishments to be regularly raided and shut down. After a raid on morning of June 28, 1969, homosexuals at a well-known gay bar called the Stonewall Inn finally took a stand against the

Rincon 2 harassment by police and the Stonewall riots began. News of these riots spread like wild fire and other gay men and women came to join in the rebellion against the police force. Fighting back by throwing coins, bottles, and rocks and kicking their heels in the air Rockettes-style (Wright) while shouting Gay Power! at the police officers, the riots lasted six days. Each night the crowds returned larger than the previous night, reaching over a thousand people. The Stonewall riots of 1969 were the catalyst for the LGBT movement for civil rights in the United States. The riots motivated homosexuals throughout the nation to organize efforts to support gay rights. After the Stonewall riots, gay rights groups started appearing in

almost every major city in the United States such as San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles.

First Annual Gay Pride Parade Stonewall's One Year Anniversary.

These groups included the Gay Liberation Front, the first group using the word gay in its name, and a city-wide newspaper was even made and it was called Gay. The first gay pride parades in the history of the United States occurred on the Stonewall Riots first anniversary. They took place near the Stonewall Inn in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Since then, gays have stood up for themselves much more and laws prohibiting public displays of homosexuality have been removed. Before Stonewall, the government enforced the idea that homosexuality was a mental illness and was a disease that could be caught if one was not careful. They displayed countless commercials on television throughout the nation depicting homosexuals as malicious beings such

Rincon 3 as pedophiles and rapists. The government also made it seem like gays were trying to get other people, specifically youth, to be gay as well and spread their disease. The police were ordered to arrest anyone who was gay. They even went to schools, almost brainwashing young kids to believe that homosexuality was the worst thing someone could ever be and to report anyone who is gay to the police. Once the Stonewall riots occurred however, homosexuals got the chance to show America that they were not the mentally ill, pedophilic, trash that the media and government made them out to be. Gays are still being discriminated upon today in our modern society. The discrimination and lack of respect from people is affecting them in various aspects of their lives including their employment and workplace. In many states, homosexuals can be fired from their job simply because of the fact that they are gay. (Bernard) It is appalling to see that this is allowed in so many states. A persons sexual orientation or preference does not make someone a bad worker, and it should not be a reason to fire anyone. Everyone should be treated as people, equally and with respect. It doesnt necessarily mean one has to agree with their life style, but simply respect it, tolerate it, and focus on other things like someones competence to actually do a job well done. Aside from it being completely fine to fire someone based on their sexual orientation, it is also legal to reject renting land property to a gay person or couple. It is illegal to reject a single mother or a person with a pet, but it is entirely legal to slam the door shut on homosexuals.

39th Annual Gay Pride Parade Sign Protesting for Equal Rights

Rincon 4 Until recently, the Boy Scouts of America banned gay boys (17 years old and younger) from being a part of the organization. Whether or not the ban would remain or be lifted was a question for many years. Finally, in early 2013, 60% of the volunteer leaders who voted on the decision across America voted for the ban to be abolished. (Eckholm) Many families are against the decision and will be pulling their child out of Boy Scouts because they claim it is not what they originally signed up for now that gay kids will be allowed and they do not want their kids exposed to homosexuality in an organization that is meant to show boys nice manly qualities. Regardless, it is a great step to integration of homosexuality into society and respecting them as equal members of humanity. It shows people that gay boys can be in Boy Scouts too, theyre sexuality has nothing to do with anything, they are just normal kids who want to go camping and have fun, yet people still want to quit Boy Scouts because gay kids will now be joining. If people would just respect each other, the boys could all be friends regardless of sexuality and be exposed to different kinds of people and personalities. Unfortunately, the ban of gay Boy Scout leaders is still in place. It is often said that the reason why someone disagrees with homosexuality is because it goes against their religious beliefs or practices. Still, one does not have to agree with homosexuality, but one should have the decency to respect it and the people as they are every bit as human and maybe even religious as the next straight person. A Catholic Insight article from early 2012 brings forth an issue in Ontario, Canada in which the school board has proposed Bill 13, otherwise known as the Accepting Schools Act. This bill was passed in order to have a better impact, influence, and control over students when it comes to bullying and disrespectful behavior to their peers by conducting disciplinary. The bill is anti-bullying, from skin color and race to sexual orientation to disabilities. Bill 13 also promotes Gay Straight Alliances in all their

Rincon 5 schools, which is where Catholic schools grew uncomfortable with, so they created instead a group named Respecting Differences, a group that promotes respect and anti-bullying across the board to everyone. This shows how the church is also promoting that same concept of respecting people of different sexual orientations while not promoting homosexuality. They are still advocating respect to all people. In the book Ties That Bind: Familial Homophobia and Its Consequences, Sarah Schulman talks about homophobia that sometimes circles in families with homosexual members. This situation is potentially dangerous and is really not the slightest bit healthy. Because family is often one of the biggest parts of ones life and is very influential upon ones life and decisions, it is vital that family relations are positive. However, that cannot be achieved if there are homophobes and homosexuals under the same umbrella. There can be dangerous consequences such as the homophobic person driving the homosexual to their breaking point, suicide. It is terribly important that people respect each other because if there is a lack of respect, in comes bullying like a wrecking ball. The bullying of gays mostly happens during youth. This time is unfortunately the time where kids are most vulnerable to the effects of bullying. Gay youth may be verbally abused, physically abused, and even cyber bullied. In the end, it may cause serious trauma to the child being bullied such as depression, self-harm, and suicide attempts or actual suicides. Some kids have been led to the point where they beg their parents to be homeschooled because they cannot deal with the bullying at school. Schools and teachers in America should enforce respect between students more than they do now like how Ontario does with their Accepting Schools Act.

Rincon 6 Media is one place were all respect has been thrown out the window. Derogatory terms or phrases like fag or thats so gay are thrown around carelessly in pop culture including places such as movies and songs. The media then influences the people in society, specifically youth who is more careless and willing to repeat whatever they think sounds cool. When someone says, Thats so gay, it should not ignore it. It should be stopped it in a polite, yet firm, form. Afterwards, one should educate the person who slipped the slur and let them know what that saying exactly means and that they should not see it because it can be offensive and is disrespectful. Aside from that, they should be proactive about it and do not excuse the behavior. The person said the slur without good reason, as there is no good reason for saying such a thing. There is no excuse.

The topic of respecting one another as equals regardless of sexual orientation is extremely important because society needs to learn this quickly so that there may be more peace in the nation. If Americans learned to respect each other no matter what, there would be fewer suicides that are attributed to anti-guy attacks and bullying and perhaps more friendships and free-spirit throughout the United States. Spreading this lesson around and teaching it to our youth at early ages will ensure better future generations. Just as Harper Lee writes in To Kill a Mockingbird, you'll know how to do it right, won't you? You'll pull it up by the roots we need to eliminate hate and disrespect from our society by starting with our youth and teaching them how to be model citizens from the get-go. The LGBT community deserves to live happy lives with no restrictions like the rest of the world. Its their human right. Respect it.

Rincon 7 Works Cited Bernard, Tara Siegel. "Fired for Being Gay? Protections Are Piecemeal." The New York Times 1 June 2013, New York ed., B1 sec.: B1. The New York Times. The New York Times Company, 31 May 2013. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. Eckholm, Erik. "Boy Scouts End Longtime Ban On Gay Youths." The New York Times 24 May 2013, New York ed., A1 sec.: A1. The New York Times. The New York Times Company, 23 May 2013. Web. 19 Oct. 2013. Lee, Harper. "Chapter 11." To Kill a Mockingbird. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1960. N. pag. Print. The LGBT Pride Parade Was Born - The Stonewall Riots. 1970. Photograph. New York. The Political Queer. 4 June 2013. Web. 8 Nov. 2013. Morris, David P. 39th Annual Gay Pride Parade. 2009. Photograph. San Francisco. Zimbio. Livingly Media, 28 June 2009. Web. 8 Nov. 2013. "Religious War in Ontario?" Catholic Insight Mar. 2012: 26+. General OneFile. Web. 19 Oct. 2013. Schulman, Sarah. Ties That Bind: Familial Homophobia and Its Consequences. New York: New, 2009. Print. Stonewall Uprising. Dir. Kate Davis and David Heilbroner. PBS American Experience, 2010. Documentary. Wright, Lionel. "The Stonewall Riots - 1969." Socialist Alternative. N.p., 1 July 1999. Web. 8 Nov. 2013.