LGBT Research

The LGBT community has been through a rough path for freedom that make the Rocky

Mountains jealous. When the community for appeared in 1995, discrimination appeared

alongside them. It brought confliction of religious beliefs as well as the known one man one

woman marriage. While through time the community has grown stronger and become more

widely accepted, there are still people who think we are mentally unstable and need help. That

being in the community is a wrong choice. In 2015 it became a federal law that states must

approve same sex marriage, which was a giant win for equality.

For Indiana, it was a step back in 2015. A Religious Freedom Act was signed and

released by Mike Pence, allowing stores with religious affiliations to deny service to the LGBT

community. It pulled in serious backlash as companies pulled business from Indiana, resulting

the state to spend over $2 million to repair their image. Gong into a week of the aftermath, Pence

revised the bill so that it stated stores cannot discriminate against the community, but the deed

was done. The community retaliated and wanted the law to completely be destroyed, and the

original supporters were upset that the law was changed. Even with the bill change, there is still

no steps forward with equality in Indiana.

Some courts have found loopholes in the equal marriage federal law. A judge in Alabama

is refusing to give gay couples marriage licenses to marry, even if it is breaking the federal law.

Some judges across the states are giving in to give marriage licenses, but because of their

religious beliefs most are still refusing. They say it goes against their religion for a gay couple to

marry. The community retaliates saying the people in office should be voted out if they cannot
do their job and give licenses. From the article in TPM written by Jeff Amy, Adam Beam, and

Galofaro; a quote is made. God did not elect her, I did, said Kevin Bass, a former police

officer who arrived at the courthouse with his wife to support gay couples seeking licenses. If

she objects to doing her job, she can go.

How the LGBT community became such a big deal and highly discriminated against can

be pointed towards religious beliefs. I dont believe that is the only reason though. When the

AIDS epidemic came into view in 1981, people wanted to find blame and looked at the LGBT

community. They said that being in the community lead to the disease, and prevented many

LGBT people who had the disease from getting treatment or testing done. This domino effect

lead to the community having more cases of AIDS and HIV because they werent getting

diagnosed and pushed away from intercourse safety. They were exposing themselves to unsafe

drug use and intercourse.

People's views have always have a negative outlook on the LGBT community.

Conversion therapy has been around since near 1850, but it became a significant outlook in

America in 1913. Since being gay was considered a mental illness, people wanted to treat it as

such. Such ways has different treatments. The most known is shock therapy. Where a patient is

shocked when shown LGBT, enacting a negative response whenever they thought about it.

Treating homosexuality as an addiction was another treatment that was less harmful. In the most

extreme cases, a lobotomy is performed to cure them.

Currently we are taking big steps towards equality in the community. California has

passed a law saying schools can now teach LGBT curriculums in History classes as young as 2nd

grade. For my Senior Project I taught a health class for a week about the community and left a
huge impact on them. We should teach kids at a young age about acceptance and stop erasing

history that include the community. As for parents and adults who have the negative outlook, we

should educate them not to fear LGBT or think of it as a disease or illness. Being gay was

removed from the APA in 1973, which is only 44 years ago.

Terkel, Amanda. "Mike Pence's Religious Freedom Law Continues To Hang Over Indiana." The

Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 02 Sept. 2016. Web. 31 May 2017.

<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mike-pence-religious-freedom-law-indiana_us_57c839b9

e4b0a22de09446d8>

"Homophobia and HIV." AVERT. N.p., 01 May 2015. Web. 31 May 2017.

<https://www.avert.org/professionals/hiv-social-issues/homophobia>

"California's students will soon learn more LGBT history in schools." Los Angeles Times. Los

Angeles Times, n.d. Web. 31 May 2017.

<http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-lgbt-curriculum-california-20160714-snap-story.ht

ml>