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Jesus Medina

Professor Rodrick

English 115

21 October, 2019

Project Space Essay

A lot has happened and a lot has changed since the beginning of the Gay Rights

Movement from the 1960’s to present day in 2019. The LGBTQIA community have been able to

pull through and gain some of the basic rights and worked hard to achieve some wonderful

milestones. LGBTQIA stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex and

Asexual/Ally. This community is a place where people who identify as any of those or are still

exploring their sexuality or gender and who they are can know that they are not alone and have

others to talk to who are just like them to help them with the experiences of being in the

LGBTQIA community. Sadly don’t get it wrong, this community still has a long way to go and

more to achieve. Within all the greatness and accomplishments achieved by the LGBTQIA

community they still recieve discrimination, rejection, and when combined it can lead to mental

health problems and suicide because of the fact of them being pressured to conform to society.

The Stonewall Riots was the “spark” in starting the LGBTQ movement which is

technically still going on today. People in the community still fight for some basic rights that

they should be able to have. The Stonewall Riots happened on June 28, 1969 and is a mark in

history where the police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York, and where customers

of that bar decided to take a stand and inspired others to do so as well. This act of resistance

resulted in what is largely considered the beginning of LGBTQ rights movement. Ever since then
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the community has achieved some basic human rights but still got more to fight for. Some of the

great achievements was the revocation of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law, a law that prohibited

openly gay people to serve in the military, in 2011 by President Obama which allowed them to

serve in the military. The biggest accomplishment was the legalization of same-sex marriage as a

Constitutional right nationwide, which meant that states should allow same-sex marriage all over

the world, a major win for the LGBTQ community on June 26, 2015. Although even with these

accomplishments there is without a doubt still discrimination towards people in the community.

According to the authors Sejal Singh and Laura E. Durso of the article, “Widespread

Discrimination Continues to Shape LGBT People’s Lives in Both Subtle and Significant Ways”

state, “LGBT people still face widespread discrimination: Between 11 percent and 28 percent of

LGB workers report losing a promotion simply because of their sexual orientation, and 27

percent of transgender workers report being fired, not hired, or denied a promotion in the past

year. Discrimination also routinely affects LGBT people beyond the workplace, sometimes

costing them their homes, access to education, and even the ability to engage in public life. Data

from a nationally representative survey of LGBT people conducted by CAP shows that 25.2

percent of LGBT respondents has experienced discrimination because of their sexual orientation

or gender identity in the past year. The January 2017 survey shows that, despite progress, in

2016 discrimination remained a widespread threat to LGBT people’s well-being, health, and

economic security” (Singh and Durso 1). The authors mention that LGBT people to this day face

discrimination and it can come in different ways. Not only do they experience discrimination

through confrontation daily because of their sexuality, they also experience discrimination in the

work force. LGBTQ people face and deal with not getting a promotion, being fired, or not being
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hired because of their sexuality. With the unfairness of this discrimination it negatively impacts

their lives by not being able to obtain a house or apartment due to non employment or not being

able to help sustain themselves and/or their household, family, and friends. In the end, even with

the accomplishments achieved by the community as a whole they individually still recieve

discrimination from the world and causing some LGBTQ people either on the verge of coming

out or out to just conform to their society around them to avoid the negative that comes with

them wanting to be themselves freely.

Discrimination and fear of experiencing the hatred and negativity that individuals show is

a major factor playing in someone’s decision to coming out. The fear of being kicked out or

rejected when first coming out is greater in the LGBTQ youth part of the community.

Frequently, discrimination also playing a role, when a youth comes out to their parents the

parents sometimes don’t like the fact that their child is part of LGBTQ and eventually results in

the youth being rejected and kicked out of their home. The authors M. Currey Cook and Cathren

Cohen of the article, “20 Years of Advocating for LGBTQ Youth in Out-of-Home Care”

mention, “Family rejection is frequently a factor leading to multi-systemic involvement. Being

kicked out or pushed out by family often forces youth out of their homes, either into foster care

or homelessness. Discrimination and bullying in schools cause many LGBTQ youth to feel

unsafe, and many skip class, increasing their risk of becoming involved in the system. Some

youth experiencing homelessness are driven to participate in street economies, including sex

work, to meet their survival needs” ( Cook and Cohen 1). The authors talk about how rejection of

youth for being in LGBTQ is frequently found with families. Because of this it forces those kids

and teens to live in foster care or be homeless and even, as sad as it sounds, sell their bodies in
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order to maintain survival in the streets. On top of that the discrimination for being LGBTQ at

school is more of a reason of why they end up in foster homes and care. According to the video,

“LGBTQ: Understanding Sexual Orientation and Gender Identities”, states, “A high percentage

of LGBTQ youth are in the foster care system” (Video, 7:21). Furthermore proving my point that

most youth in the foster care systems are part of the LGBTQ community and are in the system

because of rejection. Having these facts and out there and knowing that this can be someone’s

reality is scary and could be a factor in why some decide to better keep conforming to their

society rather than live as how they truly want to.

For people in the LGBTQ community life can be hard because they have to deal with

discrimination in all sorts of ways and on top of that rejection from anybody they come out to.

The pressure of these two put together can be overwhelming and too much for a person to

handle. Especially if they don’t have a sort of a solid support system to fall back to. The pressure

of negativity can really mess with someones mental health and possibly lead to suicide. The

author Owen Jones of the article, “Hatred of LGBTQ people still infects society. It's no time to

celebrate” asserts, “But for LGBTQ teenagers, it is considerably worse. Growing up internalising

a sense of being inferior, of being dirty, of being wrong, causes incalculable damage. For trans

people – despite recent strides forward – the crisis is particularly acute. Last year, it was reported

that transphobic hate crimes had surged, but that prosecutions were scarce. According to

Stonewall figures, eight out of 10 trans young people have self-harmed; nearly half have

attempted suicide. This is partly down to internalised shame: but the shame should not be theirs.

The shame belongs to a society that leaves many of its younger people – trans, gay, bisexual,

whatever – growing up with fear, tortured by self-loathing, thinking that they are somehow
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wrong, or dysfunctional, or dirty. The damage inflicted at such a young age does lifelong

damage” (Jones 1). Here the article mentioned slightly about males internalising feelings and

how speaking about them is seen as something gay. That in itself is already a problem, but the

case is worse for the male youth in the LGBTQ because its more than just insults, sometimes it

dwells deeper and comes with a bit of hatred. It then gives them this feeling of not being

“normal” and leads to their mental health becoming unstable and hurting themselves to the point

of possibly suicide. Not only can discrimination and rejection lead to something as serious as

suicide but their health and mental health can also be impacted as well as an LGBTQ

individual’s behavior. According to the author of the article, “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and

Transgender Health”, argues, “Research suggests that LGBT individuals face health disparities

linked to societal stigma, discrimination, and denial of their civil and human rights.

Discrimination against LGBT persons has been associated with high rates of psychiatric

disorders, substance abuse, and suicide. Experiences of violence and victimization are frequent

for LGBT individuals, and have long-lasting effects on the individual and the community”

(Anonymous 1). Both of these articles help support my argument that because of discrimination

and rejection of their families or sometimes friends and others, it makes them feel unwanted,

unloved, dirty, different and like they’re wrong. Those feelings can definitely be the reason why

some regret coming out and leads them into hurting themselves while others are afraid of coming

out and would rather hide and conform to the “norms” of the society around them.

From the Stonewall Riots, the marking in history that started the LGBT movement in the

1960’s to today, we can compare both times and see how much has changed. The LGBTQ have

been able to accomplish a major win with the legalization of same-sex marriage as a
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Constitutional right nationwide. But within that major win and others the community still

receives unfairness from the world. The LGBTQ community recieve discrimination from not

only confrontation but also in the work space because of their gender and sexual orientation. The

people within this community also face rejection from either friends or family alongside the

discrimination. In conclusion, the people in the LGBTQ community recieve a ton of

discrimination, rejection, and when combined it can lead to mental health problems and suicide

because of society pressuring them to conform and stay within the society rules and “norms” to

avoied the negative and inhumane treatment for them wanting to be themselves.
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Works Cited

~ Anonymous. “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Health.” Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and

Transgender Health | Healthy People 2020. Accessed October 20, 2019.

https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/lesbian-gay-bisexual-and-tra

nsgender-health

~ Cook, M. Currey, and Cathren Cohen. “20 Years of Advocating for LGBTQ Youth in

Out-of-Home Care.” ​American Bar Association​, 17 Apr. 2018. Accessed October 20,

2019.

www.americanbar.org/groups/litigation/committees/childrens-rights/articles/2018/spring2

018-20-years-advocating-lgbtq-youth-out-of-home-care/​.

~ Jones, Owen. “Hatred of LGBTQ People Still Infects Society. It's No Time to Celebrate |

Owen Jones.” ​The Guardian,​ Guardian News and Media, 27 July 2017. Accessed Oct.

20, 2019.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jul/27/lgbtq-partial-decriminalisation-homos

exuality-gay-trans​.

~ Montenegro, Elsa, et al., directors. ​LGBTQ: Understanding Sexual Orientation and Gender

Identities.​ ​TEEN LINE​, 21 Apr. 2017. Accessed October 20, 2019.

https://teenlineonline.org/new-teen-line-educational-video-lgbtq/

~ Singh, Sejal, and Laura E. Durso. “Widespread Discrimination Continues to Shape LGBT

People's Lives in Both Subtle and Significant Ways.” ​Center for American Progress​, 1

May 2017. Accessed Oct. 20, 2019.

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www.americanprogress.org/issues/lgbt/news/2017/05/02/429529/widespread-discriminati

on-continues-shape-lgbt-peoples-lives-subtle-significant-ways/​.