The Anti-Gay Agenda
LIGHT AND DARK. LEFT AND RIGHT. Up and down. The universe demands balance and opposites, and the same seems to apply when it comes to gay rights. We toil and struggle to be recognized as human beings who deserve human rights while some lawmakers never pass up on the chance to make us feel as though we’re a disease that needs to be controlled and quarantined. All across the globe, bills are being proposed and in some cases made into laws that restrict the rights and freedoms of the LGBT community. Just as we should be aware the actions that brought us to the present, we should also be aware of the actions that threaten to throw us into the past.
O’Brian Gunn
I’m Just an Anti-LBGT Bill
A new army of “religious freedom” bills has gathered arms and started to wage war on the rights of not just the LGBT community, but anyone else who might be considered “immoral.” From Indiana and Arkansas to Nevada and Alabama, states are using religion as a catalyst for business owners to have the right to refuse service to LGBT individuals, divorcees, interracial couples, and women.
To be more specific, this year alone there have been 34 anti-LGBT bills drawn up across nine states. While Indiana and Arkansas are the only two states to have such bills pass so far, there’s no telling how many more states will redouble their efforts.
Recently, Louisiana introduced the HB707 religious freedom bill. Representative Mike Johnson initially proposed the bill in an effort to give business owners a measure of protection if they refuse to serve members of the LGBT community. Not only that, but the bill would also give proprietors the right to deny offering health benefits to the spouses of LGBT employees.
Besides religious freedom laws, other laws are being proposed that would restrict the freedoms and rights of LGBT individuals. Bills proposed in Nevada, Georgia, Arkansas, Missouri, and Texas could give business owners and individuals the right to opt out of or challenge current laws on the basis of religion. Alabama, Michigan, and Florida seek to prevent qualifying individuals from adopting if those individuals don’t hold the same religious beliefs as the adopting agency. There are even proposed transgender bills in Florida and Massachusetts that would criminalize transgender individuals from using the ”wrong” bathroom.
The Discrimination Felt ‘Round the World
Compared to some international anti-LGBT laws, America’s might as well be polite. In Uganda, being gay is essentially a criminal act. President Yoweri Museveni signed a law that banned all acts of homosexuality and encouraged citizens to report anyone they suspected of being gay or engaging in homosexual behavior. If arrested, an individual could face life imprisonment. While the law was signed, it was later annulled because there weren’t enough members of Parliament present to vote on the law when it was initially passed.
Since 1949, Syria has made homosexual activity illegal, and anyone imprisoned for such an activity could remain in captivity for as many as three years. Even if the suspected person wasn’t jailed, he or she could still be face an honor killing by his or her family if the shame of having a gay child was too much to bear.
A bill in Kazakhstan that would ban “propagandizing non-traditional sexual orientation” was recently thrown out. While the bill passed in the senate and had yet to be signed into a law, the country’s constitutional council threw the bill out. Even without the bill, it’s still possible for Kazakhstan’s government to prohibit citizen rights to access and share certain types of information.
Laws are supposed to be put in place to protect us, not reject us. With this recent slew of anti-LGBT bills and laws, one can’t help but wonder who those laws are really protecting and why one group is more worthy of protection than another.
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