Jaclyn Purvine

11-9-15
Comp 1 8:00
LGBTs
Do you think Johnny, Katherine, Laney, Michael and Frank are equal in the eyes of the
government? What if I told you they arent? Johnny is gay and lives in fear of being fired from
his job, Katherine and Laney are lesbians and cant get spousal benefits, Michael and Frank face
a daily struggle in public places. What bathrooms do transgender people go into? The
government is just now starting to open up to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender
community. The United States government is making strides in upholding equal rights for all
citizens, but with all the different sticky situations, LGBTs will never be completely equal. As a
U.S. citizen I believe it is important to make LGBTs as equal as we can so we can continue to
protect individual rights for all and promote unity as a nationhave unity within this county and
within our government.
Many people acknowledge that the government and the states are making strives to gain
equality for LGBTs in what? but then they are just stopping. One of the biggest
victoriesvictoriesstrives in history for LGBT rights was legalizing gay marriage and adoption of
same-sex marriage on December 9, 2010. Now that gay marriage is legal the government needs
to tackle the idea of spousal benefits. Spousal benefits include social security money, and life
insurance that the live spouse can receive after the other has passed. Homosexual married
couples cannot receive any of this. Now that homosexual married couples are recognized legally
they should be entitled to the same legal benefits as a heterosexual married couple. Lesbians and
gays are American citizens and should have all the basic rights as any other person. They pay

taxes, they abide by laws and they have jobs. If the the same sex marriage couple adopted a kid
and the spouse that made most of the money to care for the kid died the other spouse wouldnt be
able to support the child anymore. The spousal benefits should be applied to gay couples too
purely for the reason that it affects that child. The government is allowing that child to starve,
have a poor education, and grow up in a bad home because the other spouse cant get any of the
spousal benefits.
Now that gay marriage is recognized by the government and is legal the focus has shifted.
Lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgenders are facing major discrimination in employment (Fig.
1) (Fig. 1). The federal government doesnt provide protections,, so theseeseis responsibilities
falls upon the states. Currently seventeen states have included sexual orientation and gender
identity into their employment discrimination statutes in both private and public employers, five
states and Puerto Rico prohibit just sexual orientation discrimination for public and private
employers, four states prohibit sexual orientation discrimination for public employers by
executive order, five states prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender
identity by executive order, Missouri protects employees of the executive branch from sexual
orientation discrimination, and New York prohibits gender identity discrimination for public
employers. (McAnallen).. McAnallen pullseds these facts to show the progress that the states
are making to ensure equality in working places.Tim W. Brown is a prime example of how
sexual orientation can affect jobs and also provides an example of government discrimination.
Brown is from Ohio and was running for a seat in congress until someone accused him of being
gay. Shortly after he withdrew from running. Brown surrender his goals but instead. ran
successfully for commissioner and then won a seat in Ohios state House in 2012. This made him
one of the few openly gay Republican state lawmakers in the country (Jacobson) (source). As

people have come to terms with the fact that they know and care about those who have a
different sexual orientation than their own, it has helped move our society toward acceptance.
(Brown). Brown said that in a recent interview to bring to the readers attention how much his
experience back then to his current election differed. He believes that the climate has changed
tremendously.
Some may argue that LGBTs cannot always be treated the same in the eyes of the
government. There are a lot of situations that need to be treated with great care and heavily
analyzedanalyzedanalized. If you take a transgender boy for example, and after the transition she
wanted to compete in sports, what sex would she play for? After the transition she will still have
all the strength of a boy and speed of a boy. Is it fair to let her compete in womens sports? Title
nine was created to provide an equal opportunity for women to play sports in college and if
transgender boys start competing in women's collegiate sports,, then title nine isnt protecting
women anymore. Perhaps, these issues must be decided on a case-by-case basis. However, the
more important issue at hand in the instance is ______________.

Works Cited
Jacobson, Louis. "Being a Gay or Lesbian State Lawmaker Is Now so Common Its No Longer
an Issue." Www.ncsl.org. N.p., 25 July 2014. Web. 17 Nov. 2015.
Works Cited
"LGBT Rights." Human Rights Watch. Reuters, 2013. Web. 11 Nov. 2015.
McAnallen, Kate. "What Is the Status of Employment Protections for LGBT People?"
Www.ncsl.org. N.p., 1 July 2015. Web. 17 Nov. 2015.