Supreme Court ruled that gay people can marry, so they have equal rights?
WRONG
While in Illinois has equal rights to Illinois residents who are LGTBIQ, there are 29 states that discriminate against LGBTQI. These states allow to discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity in employment, housing, and public accommodations. It is ironic that in these 29 states, the LGBTQI people can marry but are not guarantee getting a job or a home together.
Despite the Supreme Court’s landmark 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges making same-gender marriage the law of the land, most states still have outdated laws on their books.
Florida and Indiana are some of these states where Democrats have been trying to repeal the law. Both states have these unconstitutional laws that the Republican state-control legislators will not repeal. Florida law states “marriage” means “only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife.”
Florida Rep. Adam Hattersley told WUSF Public Media: "This is not just, you know, unconstitutional and not just obsolete, but this is cruel language in our statute. So, it needs to get out of there." He continued to say that the Republican leadership “don’t have an appetite to fix something” that they “hope would come back into play in the future.”
Six years after the Supreme Court had its say on the issue, same-sex marriage remains a politically contentious issue, and LGBTQ advocates continue to battle in courtrooms and statehouses to ensure gay couples can exercise their right to marry.
Click here to see where each state stands on Lesbian and Gay rights
For the first time, the U.S. Census Bureau released estimates of same-sex couples in its annual America’s Families and Living Arrangements tables package.
Since 2014, the year before the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same sex marriages, the number of married same-gender households have increased by almost 70 percent, rising to 568,110 couples in 2019, according to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.
Of the 980,000 same-gender couple households reported in 2019, 58 percent were married couples and 42 percent were unmarried partners, the survey showed.
There were slightly more female couple households than male couple households.
How safe is gay marriage?
Sheena Kadi, deputy director of the LGBTQ advocacy group One Colorado, was asked if gay marriage was safe. She replied, “Absolutely not, especially given the current makeup of the Supreme Court.”
Jason Pierceson, a political science professor at the University of Illinois Springfield, largely agrees. “I think in the short-term marriage is fairly safe. It’s hard to see the Supreme Court overturn itself in the next couple of years,” he said, though he added that he is less confident about its long-term safety.
The religious right has shown they are still fighting same-gender marriage politically and legally.
Nevertheless, in the 229 years of the Supreme Court, it has overturned its own rulings 236 times. That may seem high, but consider that between 1946 to 2016, there were 8,809 decisions made by the Supreme Court. That works out to only 1.8% of rulings overturning prior decisions in whole or in part. The justices are strongly in favor of status quo. [Ironically one of those case the high court overturned it past decisions was dealing with gay privacy in the 1986 Bowes vs. Hardwick case.*]
Coming out as gay is easier today
The answer is: Yes and No.
Gay men spoke of “coming out” into gay society – borrowing the term from debutante society, where elite young women came out into high society. A 1931 news article in the Baltimore Afro-American referred to “the coming out of new debutantes into homosexual society.” It was titled “1931 Debutantes Bow at Local ‘Pansy’ Ball.”
The 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s witnessed a growing backlash against this visible gay world. In response, gay life became more secretive.
The Mattachine Society, found in 1950, was the earliest important organization of what was known as the homophile movement – a precursor of the gay rights movement – took its name from mysterious medieval figures in masks. In this context, coming out meant acknowledging one’s sexual orientation to oneself and to other gay people. It did not mean revealing it to the world at large.
How the phrase “coming out” has changed. The specific language of “coming out,” which is today strongly associated with LGBTQ rights, allows other social movements to liken their experience to that of LGBTQ people – like the undocumented.
Today’s social world is different from 1950 with television shows like “Will and Grace” and “Queer Eye.” There are gay characters showing up more and more in TV shows like “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” to “Glee.”
Most lesbians and gay bars are advertised with their street signs welcoming their clientele.
No longer must one hide in the public library bookshelves to look up what is a homosexual. Today there is the internet that one can view zillions of sites about the LGBTQI world - all in the privacy of their home. If one can find the good stuff among the porn and dating apps. There is a lot of misinformation.
While this ever-increasing LGBTQI representation in media and pop culture is a huge deal to young people who are not out yet, there are those surrounded with negative information that can led to self-destruction.
It is easier to find community today – that is if you live in a large urban area.
There is an importance to find one’s “Found Family” in the LGBTQI world.** Social media has made this easier, but at the same time it also makes it easily for other people to find one’s community and be harassed with hate. According to the CDC, LGBTQI youth are twice as likely to be bullied online than their straight peers.
Coming out is happen at an early age. This is amount to the acceptance within society. But groups like the American Family Association and the Americans for Truth About Homosexuality spread anti-gay propaganda like adult gay men are pedophiles seeking out children.*** This is not true. The American Psychological Association found that children are more likely molested by heterosexual adult males on female children.****
Then there is the church. While 6 out of 14 Protestant Christian denominations sanction same-gender marriage, the majority allow full membership as openly Lesbian and Gays. The loudest of the Christian community, the Roman Catholic Church, allows Lesbian and Gays as members if they are celibate.
The church has played a huge role, probably the largest role in fostering homophobia. The church encourages young LGBTQI people to be viewed as less than human, dehumanized and even demonized. It creates an atmosphere where it is okay to be verbally abusive, be physically abusive. Many of them, suffer profoundly, physically, psychically, and spiritually.
When LGBTQI person hears “We welcome everybody,” their guard go up. Time after time church signs state “All are welcome,” but they should have an asterisk attached with small letters saying, “except gays.” These churches love the sinner but hate the sin. This just means conform to what we think is normal in God’s world. This message is hurtful to the LGBTQI community.
The bottom line - is coming out easier today?
The answer is still yes and no. However at United Church of Rogers Park [UCRP], we do our hardest to make it easier. For God is Love.
At UCRP, we affirm “All Are Welcome” by having it in our mission statement with “to make known God's love for persons of all races, ethnicities, sexual orientations, physical and mental abilities, and economic classes.” It is not just in our mission statement - we live it. Just look at the front cover of this website. It displays:
A Church for all God’s people in the heart of the neighborhood
We support the full inclusion [marriage and ordination] of LGBTQIA+ and always will
UCRP does not look being just an ally, but by being accepting all people, including LGBTQQIP2AA [Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, Questioning, queer, intersex, pansexual, two-spirit (2S), androgynous and asexual] people as part of God’s plan. We aim to reduce prejudice and discrimination in the world by making a point of coming to know LGBTQQIP2AA [also known as LGBTQI+ or LGBTQI] people all while combating prejudice and discrimination. This includes people who are Black, Brown, and different colors, from different cultures and creeds, regardless of their income or statues, or physical and mental abilities. By all this: We mean everyone is part of God’s plan. Love is Love.
We call on all heterosexual individuals who are often in a good position to ask other heterosexual people to consider the prejudicial or discriminatory nature of their beliefs and actions.
Heterosexual allies can encourage nondiscrimination policies that include sexual orientation. They can work to make coming out safe. When LGBTQI+ people feel free to make public their sexual orientation, heterosexuals are given an opportunity to have personal contact with openly LGBTQI+ people and to perceive them as individuals.
Studies of prejudice, including prejudice against gay people, consistently show that prejudice declines when members of the majority group interact with members of a minority group. In keeping with this general pattern, one of the most powerful influences on heterosexuals’ acceptance of LGBTQI+ people is having personal contact with an openly LGBTQI+ person. Antigay attitudes are far less common among members of the population who have a close friend or family member who is LGBTQI+, especially if the LGBTQI+ person has directly come out to the heterosexual person.
UCRP Mission Statement
“United Church of Rogers Park is a United Methodist Church where all God’s people are welcome! We enjoy being together and discovering the common faith that emerges from our diversity.
Warm and informal in spirit, we welcome all in Christ’s name.
United Church of Rogers Park seeks, by thinking globally and acting locally, to make known God's love for persons of all races, ethnicities, sexual orientations, physical and mental abilities, and economic classes.
What does God require of us?
But to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God.”
* Bowers v. Hardwick [1986]
In this 1986 case, the Supreme Court upheld a Georgia anti-sodomy law that forbade oral or anal sex between consenting adults -- regardless of the sexual orientation of either party. Through unusual circumstances, Michael Hardwick was seen engaging in oral sex with another man in his own bedroom by a police officer, and was arrested. Although the state declined to prosecute, the American Civil Liberties Union took up the case to test the constitutionality of anti-sodomy laws, and the case eventually made its way to the Supreme Court.
Homophobia clearly marked the Court's decision to uphold the law. The majority declared that homosexual sodomy was traditionally considered an abominable and illegal practice, specifically ruling that the Constitution didn't provide any inherent right to practice homosexual activity. Although the law in question covered both heterosexual and homosexual sodomy, the majority made it clear that the homosexual nature of the act was the key issue.
In 2003, the Supreme Court decided the case of Lawrence v. Texas by rejecting Texas's anti-sodomy law, essentially declaring that the Bowers decision was incorrect. Justice Anthony Kennedy's majority opinion stated, "Bowers was not correct when it was decided, and it is not correct today. It ought not to remain binding precedent. Bowers v. Hardwick should be and now is overruled." The dissent also specifically noted that the court was going against stare decisis by overturning Bowers.
** What is a Founded Family within a Gay House? Read more on this at:
http://www.davidgunnell.me/house-of-dudcrest.html
**** https://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/facts_molestation.html
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