Imagine having a secret. A secret so terrible that if you were to revel it, your family would disown you, people would say you are diseased, and people everywhere would accuse you of being a violation of not only society’s rules, but also nature itself. LGBT people have done protests after protests to fight for their love, for their rights of being human, and although they have come a long way, they still are discriminated and hated on quite a lot for being themselves. It is a fight for them to be recognized as normal as well as a fight to be allowed to live and love without the State watching and judging them. We must protect the basic human rights of LGBT people, but it doesn’t just require changes in laws and policies it takes changes in people’s hearts and minds, the struggle for LGBT equality will only be one if we join together.
On the tenth of December of 1948 the UN General Assembly adopted the ‘Universal Declaration of Human Rights’. It states that: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”. Yet, in 2011, the UN Human Rights Council realizes the hate and struggles the LGBT community has been going through and reveal their “grave concern” at acts of violence and discrimination against them. Even though the LGBT community is not asking for war, but love they still get unnecessary hate no one should go through just because people don’t agree with their identity. Everywhere around the world, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender(LGBT people) are still being subjected to discrimination and acts of brutality, abuse, ferocity, and even sometimes up to murder. In 72 countries same-sex relationships are still criminalized in violation of basic rights to this day, these abuses must end.
On November 4th 2003, Gavin Newsom who is an American politician and businessman, was elected mayor of San Francisco. The following year, he started gaining national attention with other city officials when he started illegally giving out marriage certificates to gay couples. Its purpose was to undercut the controversial Campaign for California Families. On March 9th, 2004, the City Council agreed to acknowledge same-sex marriages performed in jurisdictions for city employees. On March 11th, 2004, The Supreme Court of California instructed the county of San Francisco to stop executing same-sex marriages, to which caused Newsom to have to obey upon. On May 24th, 2004, the legality of the marriages were put in the hands of the Supreme Court, in which they began holding several hearings deciding whether the city of San Francisco had exceeded its authority by issuing same sex-marriage licenses. On August 12, 2004, the Court released its decision, ruling that the marriages were unlawful, and nullifying the unions were made 6 months before. The Supreme Court “expressed no opinion on the constitutionality of marriage restrictions.”
With this, homosexuals were denied the right to lawfully marry and enjoy the privileges of a legally established relationship. During all this, in protest Mayor Newsom directed the San Francisco city county clerk to issue marriage licenses once again to same-sex couples, though it was against the state law at the time. In objection against his actions, the Campaign for California Families and Alliance Defense Fund claimed it was illegal to grant same-sex marriage licences. Even though Mayor Newsom protested against this “new law” his efforts were sadly unsuccessful. The Supreme court ruled that the unions were unlawful and the marriages were nullified on August 12, 2004. Newsom issued same-sex marriage licences because he believed these couple deserved to be married, even though it was against the law and very risky. He acted on his own moral conscience in a nonviolent way rather than continue doing wrong by following state law. Although this is an act of civil disobedience, Newsom was doing what was right, even if it meant to go against what the government had stated. He followed his conscience and put what was morally right before his obligations as a mayor.
Gay love is not a choice, it’s something that is part of them, something they can’t help but feel emotions towards someone with the same sex. Transgender, let people be who they want to be, let them be themselves because that’s who they truly and no one can change the fact that that is who they are. Like I’ve stated before relationships are still criminalized in violation of basic rights to this day and these abuses need to end. The struggle for LGBT equality will only be one if we join together.
