There are many ways where equality has made strides in this country, with the majority of the states in this country overturning bans on gay marriage. However, it has become clear over the past few months that this is a small victory for LGBTQ rights, and with the deaths of Leelah Alcorn and Blake Brockington, there is much more that needs to be done to protect members of the LGBTQ community. New and new laws are being passed throughout states in this country that will legalize discrimination of trans people in bathrooms, gay people in businesses, and even legalize the murder of lgbtq people.
One example of this is in the state of Indiana, where a law called the “Religious Freedom Restoration Act” (because, you know, Christians have it so hard in this country), will make it so that businesses that openly discriminate against people that “violate their religion” will not be punished for doing so. Whenever a business does something wrong, they could cite a “religious reason” and actually win. This could mean banning people of a different religion or sexuality from going to the same places straight Christians can go to. Signed under the guise of “religious freedom”, governor Mike Pence claims that the law will “help protect churches, Christian businesses and individuals from those who want to punish them because of their Biblical beliefs“. Yes, because in a state where you can legally be turned away for being gay, it’s the churches that need protection. If a Christian hospital turned away a sick or dying person due to religious freedom, or shut down during Sundays, could it get away with it? Would the first amendment, which also supported the government staying out of religion, protect a Christian doctor after they let a member of the LGBTQ community die? We already saw with Leelah Alcorn what can happen when Christian doctors and Christian therapists are allowed to harm people under the guise of “religious freedom”. So why allow them more?
In the wake of this law passing, many people have trended #boycottIndiana. Celebrities like Miley Cyrus and Ashton Kutcher have chimed in, as well as the CEO of Apple, and an organizer of one of the largest gaming conventions in the country. Mike Pence is now on the defense, claiming that the law does not “promote discrimination”, and asking for legislature to clarify the law. As a bisexual Christian myself, I’d like to give some advice to Gov. Pence: if you do not understand how a law clearly allows discrimination and you need it to be clarified after you signed it, you messed up. Big time. It is very obvious why people are angry about this law: it allows Christian businesses to do things it was not and should not be allowed to, like discriminate, because they can use their religion as an excuse. It is not okay.
The scariest part is, this is only one of the major anti-LGBTQ laws making news lately. In the state of California, a lawyer by the name of Matt McLaughlin proposed a bill called the “Sodomite Suppression Act”, which, despite the fact that the death penalty is illegal in California, would legally allow anybody who partakes in same-sex activities to die. Literally. This law, which was able to be proposed due to a ballot initiative in the state, also bans people from passing out lgbtq literature or anything that “promotes homosexuality”. Due to many different democratic systems in the state, this lawyer might be allowed to start collecting the signatures needed to put this on the ballot. Because according the extreme religious conservatives, suicides like Leelah’s, Blake’s, and many other high-profile trans people isn’t enough. It isn’t enough that the suicide rate in LGBTQ youth is 4 times larger than straight people. They now have to threaten to kill a group of people that literally just want to be treated the same as straight people.
I could go into this much more, with laws being passed to ban trans people from using the bathroom, or continue to allow conversion therapy, etc. Because even in a country where gay marriage gets more and more support, it is becoming obvious that there are much bigger problems for the LGBTQ community. It is never, ever okay to hurt another group of people, and if your religion goes against the basic tenets our country was built on than you don’t deserve that freedom. Equality matters, and the fact that we still have to fight for this in 2015 is awful.
Politics with Ashley 