Words: 3107
Controversial topics throughout history of the world are often driven by two or multiple opposing views. Within the topic of gay rights and gay acceptance, the views changed significantly, mostly pending the geographic region or era. Before understanding the opposing reasons of thought, it’s essential to understand the definition and terms applied to the population and acts considered now as gay or homosexual. The difference in views were often legitimated or formalized by the actions of leading philosophers or political groups.
Throughout history, the timeline f significant changes in world views is lengthy and diverse to great depths. Opposing sides of the acceptance of same sex marriages or relationships mostly recognize reasons why to support or oppose any sexual relationship other than that between a man and woman of adult status. Those that supported same sex love in the B. C. Era were among the popular mindset since the Greek Intellects recognized love between two men to be among the highest form of love.
Ironically, it is widely accepted later in the 14th-20th centuries that the popular thought in several countries and communities was Just the opposite. Whether it’s the topic of same sex love or unrelated topics, it could be observed that the larger base of minority or opposition may fuel the strongest actions to defend each side’s views. Significant views that set the stage for recent years of debate during the 20th and 21st century go back to the 4th century A. D.
It was an era led by Plat’s Symposium, in which Phaedra, Researchers, Aristotelian, and other Greek intellectuals would tout that the highest form of love was that between two men. However, at that same time, Athenians were speaking out that homosexuality should not be condoned because it id not further the human species and could therefore in turn be held responsible for its future threat of extinction. It was in the 4th Century A. D. That the first law against same-sex marriage was enacted.
Under this law Christian Emperors declared that those guilty of such an act should be punished by being burned alive in front of the public. During the 12th – 18th Centuries, leaders and communities spoke out to continue crystallizing and banishing gay individuals. The council of London made it known that any similar act would be deemed sinful in the 12th Century while Spanish Inquisition took place during 1483. During the Spanish Inquisition, more than 1,600 people were prosecuted and in some cases persecuted for the act of “sodomy’s’.
Now, it’s important to understand that the term “sodomy’s’ held a different meaning at that time than it does in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Sodomy’s, gay, homosexual and lesbian were words used interchangeably throughout world history. During this same time of controversy and mixed languages surrounding the rights, King Henry VII went as far as punishing such acts with death. Gay rights and lifestyles again came into question throughout the world in the 19th Century when Germany and Russia reinitialized same-sex relationships, and groups formed to rise against this.
The first efforts to protect gay rights and safety were noted in the late 19th Century and recognized for the works of Scientific Humanitarian Committee and the Order of Charlene. Very shortly after the acts of protection, New York had a moment in history when raiding gay bat houses and providing prison sentences to men that era and became a term that was interchangeable with other terms for Gay men or women as aforementioned. The twentieth century brought the most action in the homosexual community throughout the world, and particularly in the United States.
Though most homosexual people had kept their sexual preferences hidden leading up to this point in history, in the twentieth century, they would push to become a regular part of society. A number of major events contributed to a century of “two steps forwards, one step back” for the homosexual community in the United States. The early decades of the twentieth century were marked by periods of visibility and periods of obscurity for people with alternative lifestyles. In the sass there were many “firsts” for the homosexual community, including the establishment of the
Chicago Society for Human Rights in 1924, the first group in the United States promoting the rights of homosexual people . Another first was the use of the word “homosexual” in a major publication for the first time in a 1926 publication of the New York Times. In spite of these steps of visibility in the sass, the following decade saw people return “underground” when greater visibility was followed by greater maltreatment. The arrival of American involvement in World War II in the sass brought about much progress in how members of the homosexual community interacted with society.
There were four major reasons for this progress. First of all, the war gave people a prevailing sense of the brevity of life and the need to seize happiness before it was too late, rather than hide true feelings in fear. Secondly, people became more mobile as a result of the war, often away from family members and neighbors and able to be more “themselves. ” A third way in which the war enabled progress for the homosexual community was the sense of community people received as they traveled around the world and realized alternative lifestyles were global.
Homosexual people, who had felt abnormal and alone, now saw that there were others like them all around the world. Finally, though people who were found to be homosexuals generally lost their Jobs and were societal outcasts during this time in history, the same was not true in the armed services during World War II because of the need for bodies to serve in the war campaign (Alleles, 2008). With the end of the war, however, came the return to persecution for homosexuals and others like them. In 1948, Dry. Alfred Kinsey published the book Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, followed by Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (Alleles, 2008).
These books revealed to the general public the number of people who participated in “abnormal” sexual behavior, and America was shocked. A much higher percentage of people had some level of same-sex attraction than had previously been believed. Though Kinsey books opened the door to the discussion of sex, they also exacerbated a growing paranoia within the country. This was an era known for “McCarthy,” and homosexual people were included in the national witch-hunt for dangerous people. Though homosexual people had greatly participated in the successes of World War II, in 1953 their former general, President Dwight D.
Eisenhower, signed Executive Order 10405 banning homosexuals from federal employment. A number of people were sent to prison for Just having consensual sex with another adult (Alleles, 2008). Fear reigned in the homosexual community. One bright spot in this time of hysteria was a study by Dry. Evelyn Hooker. Author Liana Alleles states that Dry. Hooker published a Because homosexuality had been considered an illness before Dry. Hooker’s research, homosexual people had been treated for the “illness,” often with extreme remedies like castration, lobotomies, and electroshock therapy.
Dry. Hooker’s paper was vital in ending these extreme treatments for homosexuality (Alleles, 2008). The sass and sass brought revolution in many areas of society. Feminists and people fighting racial discrimination became more vocal and active during these decades, and the same was true for supporters of equality for homosexuals. During this time, Jose Sarnia became the first openly-homosexual person to run for public office, according to Daniel Slotting of The New York Times (2013) and Kathy Coachmen became the first openly-homosexual person to hold public office.
Another prominent name during this time was Harvey Milk, the openly gay man elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977 and assassinated a year later by a fellow Supervisor. But the greatest call to action for homosexual activists during this period occurred in New York City in 1969. At the Stonewall Inn, during a typical police raid of the gay bar, the patrons of the bar fought back for the first time, rioting for three days . Though it wasn’t completely recognized at the time, the riots were a turning point for the homosexual rights movement.
The Stonewall patrons were in a sense saying, “We are no longer going to pay off the police and the Mafia Just to have the same rights as everyone else. ” The general attitude among gay people changed from fearful and hurt to bold and strong. Though there would be many more ups and downs in the next decades, the Stonewall riots gave the gay rights movement a momentum that would not depart. The gay activism of the sass and sass was followed by fear in the sass, brought on by a disease about which little was known at the time: AIDS.
Though the disease would take more than 100,000 lives in the United States in one decade (most of whom were gay men), it was largely ignored by the Reagan administration . Instead, misinformation about the disease spread like wildfire, and issues of discrimination against gays surfaced again. People associated AIDS with gay people and wrongly assumed it would spread easily, so gay people were fired from jobs, evicted from their homes, and denied health insurance. But AIDS also forced celebrities and tens of thousands of other gay men “out of the closet,” thereby putting a more personal face on homosexuals for many Americans.
Eventually, the crusade against AIDS was taken over by organizations outside the gay community, and activists were able to focus once again on progress in other areas. When President Bill Clinton took office in January 1992, the homosexual community rejoiced because they saw President Clinton as a possible champion for their cause. Two acts during his tenure were heartbreaking to the homosexual community. First, Clinton had promised to change the military stance excluding homosexuals from service, but though he fought for this, the best he could do was to sign into law the policy known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Under this law, homosexuals could serve in the military and would not be asked about their sexual orientation, but they also had to keep their sexual orientation a secret. Though this policy was not followed very consistently by the military and is looked at by supporters of the homosexual immunity as a negative policy overall, it was a small step forward at the time. Secondly, Clinton signed into law the Defense of Marriage Act (DOOM), which not a man and a woman”, p. 135). Though DOOM especially seemed like a giant step backwards, there were some larger steps forward on the horizon.
November 2003 brought new hope for gays and lesbians when the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that barring gays and lesbians from marrying violated the state constitution. The Massachusetts Chief Justice concluded that to “deny the protections, benefits, and obligations conferred by civil marriage” to gay couples was unconstitutional because it denied “the dignity and equality of all individuals” and made them “second-class citizens. ” On May 17, 2004 same-sex marriages become legal in Massachusetts.
In 2008 the east coast worked to implement equality by requiring employers in New York to grant same-sex couples the same rights as other couples. California seemed to be moving in the same direction when the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry. By November 3rd, more than 18,000 same-sex couples had married. However, not everyone in California was a supporter; on November 4th of the same year, California voters proved a ban on same-sex marriage called Proposition 8.
This raised a question of whether or not the state would recognize the marriages already performed, but Attorney General Brown reiterated in a news release that he believed the same-sex marriages performed in California before November 4 should remain valid, and the California Supreme Court, which upheld the ban in May 2009, agreed, allowing those couples married under the old law to remain that way. In 2009 some states were still passing and banning legislation. It wasn’t until June that there was a significant presidential initiative.
President Obama signed a referendum allowing the same-sex partners of federal employees to receive some benefits. Though a step in the direction of equality, this was still not the solution. A significant change in the military happened in December 2010; the U. S. Senate voted 65 to 31 in favor of repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. The ban didn’t lift officially until President Obama, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, agreed that the military was ready to enact the change without it affecting military readiness.
Four years after Proposition 8 was put into place, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in California ruled that the referendum that banned same-sex marriage was unconstitutional because it violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. This turning point brought additional support from President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Bidden. This momentum continued in June 2013; the Supreme Court ruled that the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOOM) is unconstitutional. The court also ruled that the law interfered with the states’ rights to define marriage.
It is the first case ever on the issue of gay marriage for the Supreme Court. This paved the way for military dependents to receive full benefits. Additionally, the military recognized that “not all US states perform gay marriage, so the military is permitting 7 to 10 days of paid leave, not countable against the 30 days of annual leave received by serviceberry. This is for travel to a state or jurisdiction that allows same-sex couples to be married”. When DOOM was found unconstitutional it opened many doors. While each Federal Agency is different, “there are over one thousand federal laws in which marriage status is a factor.
These laws confer rights, protections, and benefits to married couples from Social Security infinite. “. With momentum picking up, there are still battles ahead, to include implementation of new programs and patience with those whose hands are tied due to certain laws still being in place. There are several groups that wouldn’t like to see their states legalize same sex marriage and they are being very loud about it, by writing letters to legislators, publishing articles in newspapers and declining to provide service to same-sex couples due to their religious beliefs.
An article in The Wall Street Journal covered a story about a couple in Washington State. “After voters n the state approved same-sex marriage in December 2012, Engineers and Freed decided to tie the knot, and called their florist. They stated, ‘There was never a question she’d be the one to do our flowers. ‘ But Ms. Stuntman (the florist) declined, citing her Christian beliefs about marriage” . Unfortunately Ms. Stuntman isn’t the only person that feels this way and the United States in not the only nation that is addressing equality of same-sex relationships. Homosexuality rights and treatments around the world are quite variant.
We lead lives of naivety here in the U. S. A. Where it is frowned upon to discriminate, while there countries in the world openly discriminate against people with different beliefs and backgrounds. At the same time, some places have had much more open and free laws regarding sexual freedom. In 2011, the United Nations Human Rights Council passed its first resolution recognizing LIGHT rights, which was followed with a report from the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Commission documenting violations of the rights of LIGHT people, including hate crimes, crystallization of homosexuality, and discrimination.
Following up on the report, the UN Human Rights Commission urged all countries that had not yet done so to enact laws retention basic LIGHT rights. Many countries have strict laws on gay rights and they are even sex specific. Needless to say, they have not signed the UN agreement. In 2003 Belize legalized male homosexuality with a 10 year prison sentence, but it is okay for females to love each other. In Central America most countries have signed the pact with the I-IN, except Belize. What is strange is that Belize is an English speaking country hosting a large population of ex-patriots.
Brazil has been at the forefront of gay rights since 1830. They are so free that the people of Brazil have been able to change their legal gender and name since 2009. But first, they must go through a sex change operation. Although Brazil allows sexual freedom, marriage is not allowed as of yet. While crystallization is the most blatant form of state- sponsored homophobia, countries which decentralized homosexuality in the recent past, such as Russia, as explained in the article by Maria SO??din and Martin Christensen, are seeking to re-legitimate discrimination.
They would like to bring it the forefront, at the national level, by way of laws against LIGHT activism – preposterously defined as “homosexual propaganda” and at the international level, in the name of “tradition”. Trans-sexual in the MEAN region face double discrimination, not only from the general public but also from within the lesbian and gay communities, which accuse them of presenting a bad image to the outside world. Their visibility also makes them, especially female trans-sexual, easy targets for rapists.
Often, they have been raped by police officers, for example in Kuwait, the Penal code). There is a group called the LIGHT, ALGA is a world-wide network of national and local groups dedicated to achieving equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and interest (LIGHT) people everywhere. The group was founded in 978 and now has over 1000 member organizations. There are members from every continent, and 117 countries are represented. The influence of satellite television in Lebanon has been a large influence in changing the mentalities of people in the region.
A station, LABEL, especially spreads a more positive image of the LIGHT community throughout the region. Although there are these positive movements towards an equal treatment of gays, police are still able to arrest people for suspected homosexual behavior and sodomite’s them in public for “examination”. The countries where homosexuality is outlawed to the point of the death penalty are Mauritania, Sudan, southern Somalia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. The fight for equal rights isn’t over. In some cases there is a long road ahead.