Making up more than 16% of the population (about 50 million people), crossing all racial and socio-economic lines, people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, and/or transgendered have made advances in gaining equal rights, but many people still campaign to limit GLBT rights.
In 1969 a gay bar in New York City was raided, men were dancing together which was against the law. The people in the nightclub were arrested, those who resisted were beaten by the police. The gay community was outraged and knew they had to come out of the closet and protest for their rights as human beings. Is not “pursuit of happiness” an inalienable right assured by the Constitution?
Several large marches on Washington D. C. and political campaigns have netted only small advances for this major segment of the population. Recently, a few states have begun to recognize their Gay and Lesbian citizens as legally equal people.
With the outbreak of the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s, then President Reagan chose to ignore the problem as many people did…it was a "gay disease" . . . "they deserved it." When non-gay people began to die, and conservatives were out of office, Congress finally began establishing health clinics across the nation to combat the spread of this deadly disease. The election of the current administration in 2000 brought a conservative religious agenda to the White House, and while millions of dollars (with many strings attached) were pledged to fight AIDS in Africa, health services funding in America was cut. Because of these cuts, AIDS is once again on the rise among America’s youth.
~ Timothy Mullin
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Ariel Sarmiento