The modern era demands that people be accepting of others, whether the “other” is determined by class, nationality, ethnicity, religion, gender, or sex. The world that we live in is more connected than it has been in all of history. Technology has allowed us to be flexible and expansive in the way we communicate with each other. Take, for instance, our phones allowing us to video chat with another human being thousands of miles away. Dating sites allow us to meet people that we would have never met twenty years ago. Due to the expansive connection and the internet, we can search any topic and learn almost everything about. The most important thing we have gained from technology and the Internet, is the realization people are, well, human. We all have ambitions, desires, wants and dreams.
This past summer, on June 26, 2015, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that state-level bans on same-sex marriage are unconstitutional. The 21st Century had been building up to this moment. State after state was either banning or acknowledging gay marriage. Many celebrities since the mid-nineties had been coming out and identifying as LGBT. The last few years there has been a national call for attention to the high suicide rate of LGBT youth. Finally, the United States of America caught up to the rest of the world...
..right?
Well, good things cannot last.
In recent news, many states from the South have created bills to “defend marriage”, “defend religious rights,” and “defend our little girls from male-to-female transgender people.”
TN SB1556: Dept. of Mental Health & Substance Abuse Services - As introduced, declares that no person providing counseling or therapy services shall be required to counsel or serve a client as to goals, outcomes, or behaviors that conflict with a sincerely held religious belief of the counselor or therapist. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 49 and Title 63.
TN HB2414: Students - As introduced, requires students in public schools and public institutions of higher education to use restrooms and locker rooms that are assigned to persons of the same sex as that shown on the students' birth certificates. - Amends TCA Title 49.
TN HB2414
Update: Attorney General Herbert Slatery informed the state and general public that the TN HB2414 would violate the Department of Education's interpretation of the law that prohibits discrimination based on sex. This would result in a loss of federal Title IX funding, roughly $1.2 billion, that goes to K-12 and higher education.
MS HB1523: To protect sincerely held religious beliefs and moral convictions ... from discriminatory action by state government.
This is flat out discrimination against the LGBT community and possibly people who worship a different religion than Christianity. Growing up in the Southern Baptist Church, I thought I was taught to treat others as you who want to be treated. But apparently, there is an asterisk attached. *Unless you are different. Is there really acceptance in the Bible Belt? Is the United States truly the land of the free, when the white, Southern, Christian majority insists on limiting the freedom of others?
Society, what are you doing?
Nearly fifty years ago, the Civil Rights Movement demanded that racial segregation and discrimination end. This was based on the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, such as follow:
13th Amendment: ended slavery
14th Amendment: gave African Americans citizenship
15th gave African-American males the right to vote
However, the American South implemented the Jim Crow laws (racial segregation) in retaliation. These "laws" degraded the minority population into having less personhood than the white majority, thus validating any and all actions a white person implements onto a black person.
So today, what then is it called when states try to limit the actions and personhood of those who hold American citizenship?
Noticeably enough, the bills that have been introduced in Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi, and North Carolina have encountered public opposition. However, the public opposition that has made the most impact has not been from outspoken residents, but corporations and companies that are threatening withdrawal-which would result in drastic economic loss. What does it say when the most influential voices of concern come from corporations and not the public? I'm sure the supporters of the Civil Rights Movement and protestors of the Vietnam War would be disappointed in society's reliance of corporations and celebrities to speak for them.
Society, when are you going to speak up for the LGBT members that are affected by these discriminatory laws? Society, when are you going to speak up for the religious minorities? Society, when are you going to speak up for the ethnic and racial minorities?
