Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender: the Issues Faced Today - Research Paper Example

College From the beginning of history, same sex relationships have been a major debate with various religious and political leaders condemning the act, sometimes punishable by death. The bible, the Quran, other religious books and historical books condemn same sex relationship. In the book of genesis, God burnt the whole city of Sodom and Gomorrah due to the act of same sex relationships that took place. The same historical and religious books have instances of various injustices taking place e.g. the stoning of a woman to death due to fornication. In today’s world, fornication is not a crime and one can live the way they want without any judgment. This brings major questions as to why it been easier for the people to change in other matters that affect our lives such as stoning people to death yet it is so hard for us to accept that some people are born different to love the people of the same sex. Do the LGBT have the same rights as other people? Or are there some rights that are not given to the LGBT? Characterized by a lot of disguise and dangerous activities, the LGBT lifestyle is one of the major challenges that the gay community face today. Being accepted by the society is a major challenge; it is very hard for gay people to openly introduce themselves to the members of the society due to the prejudice that is associated with their lifestyle. It is a well known fact that many parents have publicly disowned their children due to their sexual orientation. It is therefore hard for the gay people to public express their love life as they risk sabotaging their life. It is for this reason that they usually hide themselves so that no one can know about them. Acceptance is therefore a major issue. In the movie rent, Maureen and her lover Joanne as well as Collins and Angel are both HIV positive and live a very difficult and dangerous lifestyle. As one watches the movie, the first impression that they get is that people who are gay are associated with drugs and diseases (Rent, 2005). This is very discriminatory since there are various respectable members of the society who are gay and whose sexual orientations do not stop them from performing their duties. This movie is therefore discriminatory on the gay people. Most of the people in our world today believe that being gay is associated with dirt, discrimination and drugs. It is for this reason that many people do not want to come out and say that they are gay. However if we are able to create a society that is non discriminatory of one’s sexual orientation, and that can judge people not based on their sexual preference rather by the content of their brains then we would have done a lot of justice to the gay community (Rent, 2005). Marriage and child adoption by gay parent is another major challenge in the lives of the LGBT. Whereas it is common and legal for the heterosexual to marry and have children of their own, for centuries it has always been illegal for people of the same sex to get married and share their lives together. There is no natural law that dictates that only people of the opposite sex can marry; rather each and everyone can marry whoever they want. It is a well known fact that in some countries declaring that one is gay can be fatal in some instances. For example, the South African public burnt gay couples in early 2006 saying that they were a disgrace to the society. In the Middle East, it is also a well known fact that declaration that one is gay can be a life sentence (Alsenas, 2008). What do we have to do as a society to ensure that even the gay people have justice and that they are able to practice their fundamental human rights? Since gay couples are not able to have their own children, adoption is the only alternative left for them to have children. However, most states do not give these couples the right to adopt as other couples do. It is therefore hard for these parents to express their love to a child or even extend a helping hand to a child in need. There are lots of orphaned children as well as other street children who would really appreciate real parents. However the state denies these children that right by not giving gay parents the right to legally adopt any child. If the state could come up with a law that allows gay couples the right to legally adopt a children and look after them with love and care just as other parents do then not only will they bring joy to the couple but help save the child as well as save some money that the states use to care for the children (Alsenas, 2008). Dressing is another part that the gay community find challenging. Most of the gay people always find it comfortable to dress in attires that are considered to be of the opposite sex. These include makeups and other colognes that are meant for the opposite sex. However for generations things have been changing in terms of the way that we dress. In the bible and the Quran, Mosses clearly condemns women to wear the same type of dressing as men. This was punishable by death. This means that if Mosses laws were still applicable in the world today then women would have no rights to wear trousers like in the Middle East countries. It means that our society is changing and it is for this that everyone has a right to wear whatever they feel comfortable wearing. However this does not mean that they have the right to wear clothes that reveal some nude parts of their body to the public. The gay community should therefore be given the right to wear whatever they want as long as it does not disclose some parts of their body that can offend the general public. This however applies to everyone. It is necessary and fair that each and every person be given the right to do whatever they want to do with their lives as long as this right does not affect other. Therefore our laws should be adjusted to include the rights of the gay community to wear whatever they want (Marcus, 1992). The above mentioned lifestyle is just part of a list of suffering that the Gay community undergoes and their rights that are withheld by the law as well as the society. Questioning the morals of the LGBT individuals based on their sexuality is in no way a logical proposition to make. Hitler of Germany planned a mass massacre towards the Jews, twins, even homosexual on the basis of his personal beliefs, and today the whole world labels him as inhumane and a lunatic, we should learn from this lesson that we as humans are different in our believes and preferences and so we should not use what we believe against others who does not share our believes. The notion of the society deciding what is normal and what is not should also be looked into so that whatever is normal remains the belief of an individual and he/she should not use it against others beliefs (Marcus, 1992). Coming to the religious values and the religious basis for discriminating the LGBT, an analysis may be made by taking the religious scriptures as a reference often used to make flawed conclusions about the LGBT, and coming up with insane reasons to discriminate against them. Research indicates that religious conservatives tend to have the most extreme positions on LGBT rights. They are also known to be highly critical of such individuals and label this concept as a sin which has no space in the religious scene. Evidence indicates that the Jews, those with no religious affiliation and inactive Christians are the ones who tend to form either positive or neutral position when it comes to supporting the LGBT community. On the other hand, the Protestants being conservatives or rather fundamentalists highly disregard homosexuality acclaiming it to be a sin and that too the one which can`t be forgiven under the institution of religion (Kafka, 2006). Homosexuality when debated with relevance to religion is quite a controversial topic, and has various faces to it. In this context, text from the Bible and the Quran can be quoted accordingly to draw conclusions and conclude whether or not such practices followed by the LGBT community are regarded as sinful or not. Quoted below is a text from the Hebrew Bible (Hunt 2009); Thou shall not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is an abomination. (Leviticus 18:22 KJV) If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them. (Leviticus 20:13 KJV) Quoted above is the text from the Hebrew Bible which is most often quoted by the fundamentalists who acclaim that the text clearly implies that it is a great sin to form sexual relations with the same sex as God highly disregards individuals who undergo any such activities. “(26) Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. (27) In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.” The above quoted text is taken from the new testament which is considered as a comparatively modern one, which also as indicated in the above mentioned text acclaims homosexuality as a highly prohibited act on part of those who carry it, and according to the fundamentalists, they should stop doing any such acts if they want to be forgiven under the umbrella of religion. However, this point is negated by the priests who follow the liberal school of thought as they quote the following text taken from the most modern version of the Bible (Kafka, 2006); "For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women (Romans 1:26-27b)." Thus, the conservatives rather tend to ignore the situational analysis of the Bible which defines certain limits or rather conditions when homosexuality is a sin. The above quoted text mentions “natural relations” which these people gave up. This implies that God has forbidden such acts when carried out only for the sake of lust and sex, which was also mentioned in the texts quoted above. Some people are not innately homosexual, and just carry out sexual relations with the people from the same sex to satisfy their sexual needs. Thus, in such a case even a prostitute who would carry sexual relations without marriage for the sake of lust would also be sinful, and so would be anyone and everyone (Marcus, 1992). Religion has therefore contributed largely to the injustice felt by the LGBT. It is from the bible and the Quran that various discriminative texts of the past have a negative influence on the religious people today. Since Christians and Muslims and other religious groups strongly believes in their religious books and does exactly as directed by the books, it is hard for anyone to change their perception on gay people. To successfully convince the future generation about the importance of respecting other people’s rights, the religious leaders have an obligation to strongly educate their people on regard to this matter. This should after logical reasoning since even priests are known to be gay. The church should therefore look at a realistic way to accept this fact since it is here with us (Kafka, 2006). Conclusion It is pretty clear from the above texts that the gay community is many times treated with prejudice. This is contributed majorly by our society as well as our religious beliefs and expectation. However all this can be turned around if we realize that everyone is different in his or her own way and that being homosexual does not limit ones abilities. Homosexuals can also have other rights that others have e.g. marriage and child adoption. If this is done then we will not only create a just society but we will also create a society that is mindful and respectful of other people’s thoughts, believes and culture. We also need to change from this culture of having negative thoughts and beliefs about others without taking time to know much about them. Religion is a good thing but some of its culture is outdated and should be done with. We should not try to live the uncivilized life that Moses and the early Israelites in the periods before Christ that is around 4000 years ago rather we should accept that time has changed and that we need to change with it and give others their rights too. These social as well as religious grounds are rather distorted to target these minority groups, it is for this that we as a civilized generation stand up to make changes for our future children. Any individual should thus get the facts rights and question the orthodox beliefs before discriminating against individuals, as no religion or an ethical society can support discrimination against any minority group. References Alsenas, L. (2008). Gay America: Struggle for equality. New York: Amulet Books. Kafka, T. (2006). Gay rights. Farmington Hills, MI: Lucent Books. Marcus, E. (1992). Making history: The struggle for gay and lesbian equal rights, 1945-1990 : an oral history. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers. Rent. (2005). Culver City, Calif: Revolution Studios Distribution Co. The Holy Bible. (1989). Glasgow [Scotland: Collins Publishers. Far??d, M. G. (1988). The Holy Quran. Islam International. Read More