Within the last few weeks or so, the argument as to whether transgender individuals should use the restroom of the gender they were assigned at birth, or whether the restroom that correlates to the gender they identify as. It is astounding how much uproar this has created in the media, and how hateful individuals can believe that their discriminatory arguments are valid reasons to deny someone basic services. I could go into this topic in much greater detail, however the rights of the transgender community is not what I wish to speak about for I would like to incorporate a greater, or rather broader idea and range of interest in this composition. It has occurred to me that we live in a time where rallies are held, marches take place, and individuals exercise their first amendment right to protest against what they believe in, falling under free speech.

It is interesting to look back in history, and explore all the different fights and civil movements that seemingly changed the course of history, that lead to another enlightenment, thus creating a domino effect, trickling down to modern day. Shining a light on recent issues, I would like to speak on how, even after all different civil rights movements, we still seem to stick to our traditional values that the United States was built on. In particular, if a time line were in front of you, starting from the end of the civil war up to modern day, the amount of civil actions that have taken place that most likely go unnoted would shock the average person.

For example, the fight for equality for women spans from about the year 1849 to the year 1920. Within this time period, women fought and protested for their right to vote, and equal recognition alongside their male counterparts. Interestingly enough though, after 1920, when women were given the right to vote, it was assumed that women received what they were fighting for, and the women’s suffrage movement seemed to disappear.

In addition, after passing the emancipation proclamation, African Americans fought for equal opportunity as their white counterpart. After nearly a hundred years later, when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X stepped in, and demanded that they receive their rights, the timeline for the progression of the African American population seemingly drops off. It is as if society chooses not to acknowledge their wrong doing, so they seemingly develop an odd case of amnesia that leads to ‘forgetting’ about all the progress and fighting that went into the movement, and is just erased from the history books.

In Addition, the fight for equality for the LGBT community is marked to begin around the year 1969, when homosexuals were victims of police brutality simply for being gay. This timeline being arguably the most recent, is also the shortest, for the line ends at 2015, where same-sex marriage was legalized, and members of the LGBT community successfully repealed DOMA. However, after this revolutionary break through, it now apparently is appealing to attack other members of the LGBT community simply for being who they are.

These three major evolutions in American history have changed the lives for so many, and even after hundreds of years of fighting for our basic human rights, we still chose not to learn from history, thus repeating itself. If we can learn anything from history, it is how to not treat other human beings. We all simply are people who desire the best life we can live, however when so many restrictions still stand, even after all the fighting that went into it, makes that goal not as obtainable. We as a society are doing things wrong. Why is it that we feel the need to express our arrogance, rather that accepting others as the human being that they are, and moving on with our day?

We are not defined by the boxes that those around us put us in. We as human being are multidimensional and our basic nature does not conform to one concrete idea or aspect. The fact that someone is a female, or that someone is African American, or that someone is a member of the LGBT community. How have we as a community come to the point, where we feel that we can give a start and end date for all these different arguments, when all of these fights for equal rights and opportunities still plague us today? Women still do not receive equal pay as their male counterpart, African Americans are still subjects to racism and segregation, and LGBT individuals, though now can exercise the right to marry each other, are still denied basic rights and services just for being themselves. We are all human, yet we still fall victim to the assumption that some are vicious animals that have a hidden agenda. We are doing things wrong! We have entered into a time where time travel truly exists, and we are going backwards in time, instead of going forward.