Equal Rights Proposition Outline

Equal Rights Proposition Outline

Team D

SOC/315

Equal Rights Proposition Outline

I. Introduction

LGBT community life in different countries has always been the highlight topic of discussion. Couples, who slightly retreated from the traditional relationships and claim about themselves, tend to face with various harassments, encounter with inequality in the right for marriage and equal salary. Thus, in this essay we will discuss issues involving equal rights issues and challenges in the workplace involving those from the LGBT community and how this movement has been historically developing.

II. Issues, Challenges, Opportunities

There was conducted a mutual analysis of classification of the LGBT issues involving equal rights and discerned three groups of problems.

1. Negative views and/or mistreatment of employers and workforce

2. Rights and Discrimination

3. Fear of delay in reclaiming benefits after termination

III. How society has constructed this group’s identity

It was in the 1970s the United States found themselves in new era to research sexual orientation and identity development while emerging theoretical stage models describing homosexual identity. Many of the models used were focused on the person’s internal conflict resolution to identifying themselves as lesbian or gay in their ‘coming-out’. In 1973 the American Psychiatric Association finally removed homosexuality from the official list of mental disorders in its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

There has been growing recognition over the past few decades since then of the experience gained by society and understanding the diversity of sexual orientation beyond heterosexual, gay, and lesbian identities.

During a 2013 the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) community was surveyed on how they perceived the acceptance by society. This community’s respondents were asked, from an overall perspective, just how much social acceptance they believe they have experienced for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in the United States. “About one-in-five (19%) say there is a lot of acceptance for the LGBT population, 59% say there is some acceptance, and 21% say there is only a little. Just 1% say there is no acceptance at all” (Pew Research Center, 2013).

IV. Legal framework relating to this issue

LGBT rights in the United States are in a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction framework. It has been an upward battle each step of the way for any level of equal rights as any heterosexual person.

In 1962 Illinois became the first state to decriminalize homosexual acts between consenting adults in private. Before this, just the mere act of homosexual activity was a crime.

After a number of riots and marches in various parts of the country, such as New York City in the 70’s and the National March in 1979; the nation began to see significant stances in the government. In 1980, the Democrats supported gay rights at the Democratic National Convention in New York City, adding that all groups must be protected from discrimination regardless of their race, color, religion, national origin, language, age, sex or sexual orientation.

Equality for this community in the United States was not seen, but the initial beginnings of larger issues to come. In the 2000’s the US began to see an evolutionary change towards gay marriage. Throughout the 2000’s the US saw differences between states concerning civil unions and marriages between same-sex couples. States such as California even went through a period of legalizing it then banning these unions later in the year.

In the 2010s the US began to see other changes in the federal policy makers that would begin shaping the way society treats the LGBT community. President Obama, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and Admiral Mike Mullen agree lifts the ban which prevented openly gay men or women from serving in the US military. Again, we saw the flip-flop approach towards gay marriages amongst the states and efforts to make it a constitutional right while others continued to attempt to ban it. It wasn’t until 2015 where the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have the fundamental right to marry and that states cannot say that marriage is reserved for heterosexual couples.

V. Summary of existing or proposed solutions of differing groups. Consider the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, corporate human resource departments, state or federal laws and regulations, political strategies, government agencies, religious groups, and grass roots organizations.

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission states “EEOC interprets and enforces Title VII’s prohibition of sex discrimination as forbidding any employment discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation.  These protections apply regardless of any contrary state or local laws” (EEOC.gov, n.d.). “EEOC is addressing LGBT legal developments in numerous outreach and training presentations to the public.  During FY 2015, field office staff conducted more than700 events and reached over 43,000 attendees where LGBT sex-discrimination issues were among the topics discussed. In the federal sector during FY 2015, there were approximately 53 presentations delivered to over 4,400 federal sector audience members.  These events reached a wide variety of audiences, including employee advocacy groups, small employer groups, students and staff at colleges and universities, staff and managers at federal agencies and human resource professionals” (EEOC.gov, n.d). There is many resources listed on the website for all people who are want to gain more information regarding the LGBT laws in the workplace.

Another great resource is the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). This campaign helps with advocating and developing a group that is resourceful and supportive when it comes to LGBT in the workplace. It provides a lot of information about “coming out” in your workplace and developing relationships with people and knowing your audience.

Overall, we believe that the above resources would be great solutions to expected (and unexpected) LGBT issues that can arise in the workplace, as well as educating people that work at a particular company.

VI. Whether or not this issue exists in other countries, and if so, how it is handled by differing groups

United States it is to be the one of the most liberate country towards LGBT community, even there are different laws in different states. However, the issue of this community exists all over the world. We may notice that many countries of the European Union tend to express compliance to this community. Public support for same-sex marriage from EU member states as measured from a 2015 poll is the greatest in the Netherlands (91%), Sweden (90%), Denmark (87%), Spain (84%), Ireland (80%), Belgium (77%), Luxembourg (75%), the United Kingdom (71%) and France (71%) (European Commission, 2015). If we look on the map , there is a clear pattern: attitude to LGBT community decreases from West to East, from legal marriages and positive residents’ thoughts to limited-by-constitutions marriages and negative attitude from inhabitants. Meanwhile the situation in many African and Arabic countries seem to be way worse. There are countries where homosexuality may be punished by death: Mauritania, Yemen, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, United Arab Emirates, Somalia, Sudan and Nigeria. (Bearak M., Cameron D., 2016). The most popular reason is existence of sharia law – which prohibits any intersexual relationship with the same gender, by the faith. There are often LGBT marches and other events organized by the community which are aimed to strengthen rights of LGBT individuals, whereas in east countries people do not fight as it is any such actions are strictly prohibited by law.

VII. Your team’s compromise or alternative to existing solutions

VIII. A description of the organization, order, and approach to your team’s presentation

VIIII. Presentation Format Decision for Week 5: PowerPoint

References

Include at least five academic references in your research

Advocating for LGBTQ Equality | Human Rights Campaign. (n.d.). Retrieved July 17, 2016, from http://www.hrc.org/

Amnesty International. (2016). About LGBT Human Rights. Retrieved from http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/issues/lgbt-rights/about-lgbt-human-rights

Millhiser, I. (2016). Think Progress: Congress’ Response To Orlando Shooting Is To Try To Legalize Discrimination. Retrieved from http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016/07/11/3796693/congress-first-lgbt-rights-hearing-since-orlando-bill-legalize-discrimination/

U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (2016). What You Should Know About EEOC and the Enforcement Protections for LGBT Workers. Retrieved from https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/wysk/enforcement_protections_lgbt_workers.cfm

Pew Research Center (2013). A Survey of LGBT Americans Chapter 2: Social Acceptance. Retrieved from http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/06/13/chapter-2-social-acceptance/

European Commission (October, 2015). Special Eurobarometer 437: Discrimination in the EU in 2015″. Retrieved from http://www.equineteurope.org/IMG/pdf/ebs_437_en.pdf

Recognition of same-sex unions in Europe. Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recognition_of_same-sex_unions_in_Europe

Max Bearak and Darla Cameron

Bearak M., Cameron D. (June 16, 2016). Here are the 10 countries where homosexuality may be punished by death. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/06/13/here-are-the-10-countries-where-homosexuality-may-be-punished-by-death-2/