LGBT

First Comes Love

Posted on by kailynmiller

In the United States there has been a widespread movement to fight for marriage equality. Recently, the Supreme Court declined to hear appeals in which lower courts legalized marriage between people of the same gender. This is an crucial step which served as a final approval for five states that were debating the issue and is predicated to be key in similar movements in 6 other states.

The push for marriage equality has been an ongoing attempt to change the social norms and expectations of the heteronormative world that we live in. In 2013, there was an initiative on Facebook to change profile pictures to red versions of the human rights campaign logo. It was to show support for marriage equality in face of the United States Supreme Court upcoming decision on Prop 8. Many of LGBT movements have been to raise awareness of support such as the profile pictures, Straight but Not Narrow, and NOH8. One of the better known ones targeted towards LGBT youth has been the It Gets Better campaign.

These grassroots movements seem to be having their desired effect. In 1996, only 27% percent of Americans were found to support same-sex marriage according to the Gallup poll. This number is up to a 55% as of May 2014. This change in public opinion is now having a affect on the legislation. In the United States, there is now marriage equality in 32 states and in the District of Columbia.

More and more Americans are realizing that you cannot discriminate against a group of people and still call yourself the land of the free. Same-sex marriage is one small step to furthering the lgbt rights movement in the United States.

Love around the World

Posted on by kailynmiller

As the United States and western Europe move forward on marriage equality, a large number  of countries still criminalize homosexuality. International rights laws surrounding gender and sexual minorities were brought into the spotlight during the 2012 Sochi Olympics. Russia created a law that banned “the propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations” to minors.  This created fines for individuals and NGOs that range from $150 for an individual to $30,000 for NGOs. Additionally, foreigners can be detained in prison for 15 days and deported from Russia. It is illegal to show support for non-heterosexual couples or say that is normal and pride parades have been banned in Moscow for the next 100 years.

Russia’s laws very clearly breaks the rights laid out in the Universal Declaration for Human Rights by eliminating the freedom of speech given in the preamble as well as the discrimination against the LGBTQ community at large. The issues in Russia are just the tip of the iceberg in regards to human rights violations against the LGBTQ internationally. Currently, over 70 countries have laws that call for the imprisonment of people based on their sexual orientation. Of these countries, five of them (and parts of two others) call for the death sentence for people found to be gay.

(note: map accurate up to December 2013)

While there have been some threats of cutting aid and boycotting events there has been little international action against these laws. Overall, decisions are left up to the nations in question, and the threats of the international community to change the laws are viewed as overstepping the sovereignty of the nation.  This position has not caused much change though. South Africa is the only African nation with marriage equality and has non-discrimination laws, yet there is little action to reprimand and punish men who rape lesbian in an attempt to “fix” their sexual orientation. Each week there around 10 cases of these “corrective” rapes in Cape Town alone. The overall homophobic attitude in the police force makes many women decide not to pursue the case because of how they are treated. Some of the action that nations have made include demonstrations. Notably was Putin’s visits to the Netherlands where the city protests the Russian “propaganda” laws. The city donned itself rainbows and held protests to show its disagreement with Russian policy.

There needs to be more international effort to overturn anti-homosexuality laws. The current method has not been effective as people are still being killed for who they are. It should not be allowed for nations to blatantly abusing their citizens human rights.