How Do Women and Homosexuals Suffer Discrimination - Research Paper Example

Gays, lesbians, and bisexuals are subjected to human rights violations. According to Nussbaum, these human right violations include denial of the right to marriage and its social and legal benefits, denial of rights to serve in the military, discrimination in education, employment, and housing, as well as lacking the right to carry out consensual sexual relationship with another adult without having to cop a criminal penalty. Gays, lesbians, and bisexuals are also denied the right to be protected from violence.

This paper will discuss the various human rights violations against these groups, why these violations occur, and what can be done to address the problem. Women and girls, as well as gays and lesbians, are subjected to these violations because of various reasons. The most significant is because of the focus placed on the public sphere when discussing human rights while ignoring the private sphere (Maran & Angela 12). The invisibility of victims undergoing violations of their privacy rights is normally reified with any appeal to the standards of human rights.

The absence of rights such as those on sexuality and fertility for a long time has been unfavorable to the rights of women and girls. Additionally, the contradictions in human rights wording cause partial and confused treatment of the family. The private nature of the family, as is the focus of most human right laws, allows gender discrimination to go on unchecked. With gays and lesbians, the confusion on their definition counts as a reason why their rights are being trampled. Lack of proper definition of gays and lesbians for a long time has made their rights unattainable.

Arati Rao and Martha Nussbaum are in agreement as far as the cause of discrimination for their respective groups is concerned. They pinpoint the control of the nature of family by the state, as a major contributor to human rights violations for both groups.