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Chengzhuo Wang
Dr. Carlisi
ESL 33B
29 Nov 2016
Three aspects in Discrimination against Homosexuality
In 2015, President Obama announced that gay marriage in America is legalized. The LGBT
community felt so happy about this announcement. No doubt that this announcement admitted
the LGBT communitys exist and their power. However, there were lots of people who stood out
to against them. Why those people cannot admit those people? And why they would rather like to
go to jail to fight for their sexual orientation? In this case, Let us talk about the reasons in
discrimination against homosexuality. The answer is that religion, law and social environment
that are all the reasons that make homosexuals feel discrimination in their life. Most of religions
may believe that gay marriage is the wrong thing to do, also, some religious think what the
LGBT communitys actions are sin against the law of nature. Banes and Meyer, who wrote the
article Religious Affiliation, Internalized Homophobia, and Mental Health in Lesbians, Gay
Men, and Bisexuals. said that Most American religious denominations have taken proscriptive
action against sexual minorities, condemning same-sex behavior as sinful, barring LGBs from
spiritual leadership positions (or requiring their celibacy in such positions), and refusing to
sanction same-sex union ceremonies(qtd.in 505). They focused on studying the relationship
between LGBT and religions, such like Christian. And the sentence just shows that most
religious are refusing homosexuals. Not just the religious show their refusing attitude, but also,
laws. The homosexuals fought for their rights in 39 years just for passing a bill. This bill called

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Employment Non-discrimination Act which is the law prohibit discrimination in hiring and
employment basic on the sexual orientation and gender identity. The law started in 1974, passed
in 2013, in those years, after all the fights the LGBT did, the society accepted them more and
more. Discrimination does not just show by law, but also showed by the homosexuals social
environment. Park and Mykhyalyshin, the New York Times reporters, who reported that Nearly
a fifth of the 5,462 so-called single-bias hate crimes reported in 2014 were because of the targets
sexual orientation, or, in some cases, their perceived orientation(L.G.B.T. People Are More
Likely to Be Targets of Hate Crimes Than Any Other Minority Group). Obviously, LGBT has
become the target of hate crimes. Bullying in high school is the most common phenomenon.
Also, the LGBT working environment is awful and full of discrimination. Although for today, in
America, homosexuals feel lesser discrimination than before, but there are still factors against
homosexuality.
People who have religions think the LGBT offends God. Have you ever heard that Muslim
has strict rules to their followers? Reading the news from the religion news website, the article
Muslim Attitudes about LGBT Are Complex, Far from Universally Anti-Gay. said that In the
U.S., a 2014 Pew Research Center study shows, Muslim Americans are less accepting of
homosexuality than Americans as a whole: 47 percent of U.S. Muslims said it should be
discouraged and 45 percent said it should be accepted( Lauren Markoe). Even in this open
attitude country, the Muslim still have a majority people who do not accept homosexuality. Just
in 2016, a Muslim man killed 49 in an Orlando Gay night club. According to National Review
website, who reported the article Killing Homosexuals is Not ISIS Law, It Is Muslim Law,
gave the evidence of killing homosexuals is the Muslim law. The Prophet (Allah bless him and
give him peace) said: Kill the one who sodomizes and the one who lets it be done to him. May

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Allah curse him who does what Lots people did. Lesbianism by women is adultery between
them (Reliance of the Traveller Sec. P17.3). The sentence is from a classic manual law of
Islamic jurisprudence. It said clear that if the follower knows someone is lesbian, then the one
should kill her. The discrimination is from the history, from the source of godliness. Maybe it is
not enough to say that this sentence shows the discrimination. But for today, do you think it is so
wrong to take someones life just because the religion give you the rights?
Not just Muslim people showed their discrimination to the LGBT, but also Christian. The
new LifeWay survey found that those who identify as "born-again, evangelical or fundamentalist
Christian" are the most likely to say that homosexual behavior is a sin (73 percent) (Gibson 17)
from the article Fewer Americans view homosexuality as a sin. For showing the discrimination
in Christian, many pastors and judges who believe in God refused perform the gay marriage. A
judge from Toledo Municipal Court declined to marry a same-sex couple because of his
personal and Christian beliefs. (DeMar). If the judge knows that it is legalized to marry gay
couples, how disappointed he may feel. And in the real world, the judge can be sent to the jail
because of his reactions. Such discrimination also showed from refusing LGBT in the church.
The LGBT community who are Christian have no way to fight but establishing their own nondomination church. No matter what religions you believe in, the law in the country can always
get power over the personal believe.
Before President Obamas announcement, law was one of the aspects against LGBT. Except
the one we talked in the beginning, there are a lot of states in America have laws against
homosexuality before gay marriage legalized, such like Alabama, and Arizona. On the Think
Progress website, there is the article called 9 States with Anti-Gay Laws That Arent That
Different from Russias, showed that in Alabama, gay is not acceptable in their society. The law

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form that state said that An emphasis, in a factual manner and from a public health perspective,
that homosexuality is not a lifestyle acceptable to the general publication and that homosexual
conduct is a criminal offense under the laws of the state (Ford). Also in Arizona, the law shows
that gay sex is not safe, which prohibit that 1.Promotes a homosexual life-style. 2. Portrays
homosexuality as a positive alternative life-style. 3. Suggests that some methods of sex are safe
methods of homosexual sex. Some of the laws sound like the state was trying to control AIDSs
spreading. AIDS is the disease that easy be infect by having sex in gay couples. But that is not all
the purpose. In today, people may wonder why other people think the gay lifestyle is not a
positive style. The stereotyping in peoples minds are not easy to change. But in those years, not
just in society, but also in TV shows, you can always see a gay couple such like Modern Family
and Desperation Housewives. Just because more and more people find out that LGBT people
have nothing different beside sexual orientation. They are kind and no offensive. But the
previous laws do not think that way. In 2014, according to CNN news, Arizona's Legislature has
passed a controversial bill that would allow business owners, as long as they assert their religious
beliefs, to deny service to gay and lesbian customers (Arizona lawmakers pass controversial
anti-gay bill). Such discrimination also has received responses from LGBT protectors: On
Friday, the LGBT group Wingspan staged a protest march to the governor's office that drew
about 200 people. Some carried signs with messages "God created us all equal" and "Shame on
Arizona."(CNN). Thinking back from history to today, the homosexuals were fighting such a
long time until the gay marriage legalized. Although president Obama announced that gay
marriage is legalized in America, there is still potentiality of changing after Donald Trump takes
the office.
Except laws, let us see what the LGBT communitys social environment looks like. On

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website No Bullying shows that Studies have shown that LGBT students constantly received
bigoted verbal abuse such as name-calling like homo, fag or sissy more than two dozen times per
day (LGBT Bullying Statistics). But what makes those students have such big discrimination
towards to the LGBT community? The website explained that appearance was the number one
reason for bullying. People can perceive peoples sexual orientation by their looking sometimes.
Just like gays, most of them may use to wearing makeup, or walking like female. I guess
transgender is the easiest one to judge. Bullying always happen in school, it becomes not just the
older children bullying the younger one, or the stronger bullying the weaker. When it comes to
gender, children may do not have conscious like what is LGBT. In their world, there are only
male and female. So in the future, our education department may want to add gender instruction
section in biology class. And also, for protecting children childhood, parents have responsibility
to educate their children on bullying. In the final analysis, bullying is wrong thing to do in any
way for any reason. The second most common reason was actual or assumed sexual orientation
and gender identity. According to a 2007 study by GLSEN, 86 percent of LGBT youth report
being harassed at school. Comparing to 27 percent of all students being bullying in school.
(LGBT Bullying Statistics). Fore-information just shows that LGBT has being the bullying
target. Except being bullying in schools, workplace has become to the bullying sites, too. Studies
show that anywhere from 15 percent to 43 percent of gay people have experienced some form
of discrimination and harassment at the workplace. Moreover, a staggering 90 percent of
transgender workers report some form of harassment or mistreatment on the job (Center for
American Progress). The LGBT communitys workplace is not safe. Those people who harassed
the LGBT community would be call homophobia, and they already has been considered as hate
crime today. Discrimination in the LGBT community seems as a common phenomenon. A girl

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who is transgender told the website that her boss told her what she did may make other people
feel uncomfortable and her transition was unacceptable and inappropriate. Then she got fired
without doing anything wrong. She felt devastated.(AmericanProgress). The story comes from
Vandy Beth Glenns experience. Such story happened over and over. The LGBT community not
just feel discriminated, but also feel sad. In this situation, the LGBT community would be afraid
of come out of closet since they may lose their jobs.
Discrimination, a phenomenon in the whole society, existed for thousands of years. We dont
know if it will disappear or not, or it will disappear in which generation. But we all hope the
world does not have discrimination at all. Religion, law and social environment are three aspects
in discrimination against homosexuality. They are not all reasons, but they are the major factors
in the whole society. Although gay marriage is legalized in the United States of America,
discrimination still exists. We can change the law, we are never able to change the whole human
beings mind.

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Works Cited
Barnes, David M., and Ilan H. Meyer. Religious Affiliation, Internalized Homophobia, and
Mental Healthin Lesbians, Gay Men, and Bisexuals. American Journal of
Orthopsychiatry, vol. 82, no. 4, 2012, pp. 505515. doi:10.1111/j.19390025.2012.01185.x.
Service, Lauren Markoe Religion News. Muslim Attitudes about LGBT Are Complex, Far from
Universally Anti-Gay. USA Today, Gannett, 17 June 2016,
www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/06/17/muslim-lgbt-gay-views/86046404/.
Sanchez, Ray, and Miguel Marquez. Arizona Lawmakers Pass Controversial Anti-Gay Bill.
CNN, Cable News Network, 2 Feb. 2014, www.cnn.com/2014/02/21/us/arizona-anti-gaybill/.
Mccarthy, Andrew C. Killing Homosexuals Is Not ISIS Law, It Is Muslim Law. National
Review, 13 June 2016, www.nationalreview.com/article/436505/mass-shooting-floridaanti-gay-violence-rooted-muslim-law.
DeMar, Gary. I Thought 'Gay' Was the 'New Black': Black Judge Refuses to Marry Same-Sex
Couple. Godfather Politics, 9 July 2015, godfatherpolitics.com/i-thought-gay-was-the
new-black-black-judge-refuses-to-marry-same-sex-couple/.

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Park, Haeyoun, and Iaryna Mykhyalyshyn. L.G.B.T. People Are More Likely to Be Targets of
Hate Crimes Than Any Other Minority Group. The New York Times, The New York
Times, 15 June 2016, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/06/16/us/hate-crimes-againstlgbt.html?_r=0.
Gibson, David. Fewer Americans View Homosexuality as a Sin. Christian Century, vol. 130,
no.3,2June2013,pp.1717.web.b.ebscohost.com.ezp.pasadena.edu/ehost/detail/detail?
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Ford, Zack. 9 States With Anti-Gay Laws That Aren't That Different From Russia's.
ThinkProgress, 3 Feb. 2014, thinkprogress.org/9-states-with-anti-gay-laws-that-arentthat-different-from-russia-s-4a903d6dbff6#.ktiub4do4.
LGBT Bullying Statistics. NoBullying.com, 7 Nov. 2016, nobullying.com/lgbt-bullying
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Krehely, Crosby Burns and Jeff. Gay and Transgender People Face High Rates of Workplace
Discrimination and Harassment. Center for American Progress, 2 June 2011,
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