Throughout history, the U.S. has struggled with the idea of equality. Many things come into play when considering the equality of something including religious beliefs, gender, demographics, political views, etc. What makes deciding whether something is ethical or equal so challenging is that every person has different definitions of “equal.” The U.S. government has had to (or tried to) keep up with the ever-evolving society we live in by making amendments to the Constitution and making other necessary changes. In this paper, I will explore the rights of African Americans as well as the rights of LGBT members. African Americans and LGBT members have been denied many rights in the past. One of the most tragic denial of African American rights was slavery. Slaves were denied some of their most unalienable rights, including the right to your own body. In Scott v. Sanford, Scott argued …show more content…
Slavery was abolished, and African Americans were given the right to themselves along with other rights. The fifteenth amendment gave them the right to vote, but it wasn’t until the Voting Rights Act that they actually started voting. Prior, they were required to take literacy tests or pay a fine which many of them were not capable of doing. In 1964, Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act which ended Jim Crow laws. LGBT members now have the right to marry in all 50 states as well as adopt. A majority of employers prohibit discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. To remove the stigma regarding homosexuality, the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from their list of mental disorders. This had been an ongoing offense to the members of LGBT. The government has enacted many new bills like the Hate Crimes Prevention Act to protect the rights of LGBT. Earlier this year, D.C. became the first state to provide a gender-neutral option for driver’s
How could a signature transform America? Lyndon B Johnson was born in 1908 near Stonewall in Central Texas. Though his Texas roots he was intellectually gifted, motivated and possessed much vigor(BE). Why did L.B.J. sign the Civil Rights Act of 1964? If principle decisions are based on strongly-held beliefs, then Cotulla Teaching, Ignoring Southern Reaction, and Change of Heart show that President Johnson was motivated to sign by his principles.
Equality is arguably one of the most heavily debated and fought over topic in the United States, and has been throughout it’s history. Whether race, gender, marriage or social equality, there is always a discussion taking place. Individuals are recognized as being equal before the law. When being looked at from a wide angle, the definition of equality seems clear, but when viewed through different lenses it becomes more difficult. Social equality, which for this case will encompass race, gender, and marriage equality, is incredibly distinct from equality with liberties and rights.
In many states, however, sex and gender are excluded’, [...] ‘State laws that exclude sex and gender will be unconstitutional under the ERA,’” (Rodia, 18). Even though some states protect equal rights for all sexes and genders, other states do not. This proves that the US needs an amendment in the Constitution so that these equal rights will and have to be protected by all states. Another issue is that these rights are not permanent.
In his 1963 speech, “I Have a Dream,” Martin Luther King, Jr. asserts that African Americans must be empowering yet placid in their pursuit to gain freedom from racial prejudice. The Emancipation Proclamation gave many Negroes hope and presumed freedom a century ago. However, Negroes are still struggling for freedom in a land where they are treated unjustly and live in poverty. Both the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence supposedly give all men, including black men, equal rights, but America has not been upholding its promise.
According to the Constitution, people can’t be stripped from their inalienable rights which are “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Despite the implement of the Constitution, “freedom” was defined differently in the 1980s than it was in the 20th century. Back in the 1980s, “freedom” was still not seen as a right to all people due to some of the laws such as the Immigration Reform and Control Act” that were implemented to go against the Constitution. While, in the 20th century, “freedom” was viewed as a right since “freedom” was offered to every people no matter what their race, their color of the skin, their religion, and their sexuality. For example, former president Barack Obama was able to make same-sex marriage legal, lifted the restriction on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” barred employers for firing their employees for being either transgender or having a different sexuality, allowed everyone to have universal access to ObamaCare, and had a diversified cabinet that helped Obama make tough decisions to make America the most affluent and strongest country in the world.
1. African Americans was taken as slaves in the 17 th hundreds. They came from Africa and was transported to America. Black people worked on plantations and farms for the most part. They were treated poorly.
Does every American Citizen truly have civil rights? The idea that civil rights is something we as Americans have achieved have been mostly false, you can see this in many cases throughout the United States that some people or a whole race is being negated their basic rights as a Human either by the government itself or certain individuals. The United States has many great qualities such as freedom of speech, the right to vote, And the list goes on, but something which will take years and years to obtain would be civil rights of every citizen in the United States. A flaw that the United States haven’t been able to fix since the birth of this country is being able to give people of a different race equal rights as Americans and true Civil Rights. Many politicians have tried to make America a better place and always say that civil rights have
The Equal Rights Amendment “Human’s rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights,”-Hilary Clinton. It took so long for women to finally get basic rights but they are still struggling to be treated as equals next to men. Many women now have a job and help support their family but they still have to deal with the fact that they will probably never have a job greater than a man. Many women are undermined of their abilities at work every single day. First, women get paid less than men even if they have the same job.
During the dark years of slavery, there were also African Americans who gained their “freedom” in the North. Considering how White Americans treated and viewed African Americans we must question if “black’s rights” actually qualified as freedom. The free blacks in the North, with all their regulations and rules, would definitely not be considered free in the modern day. Freedom is the being able to do whatever you want, and go where you need to in order to obtain security. African Americans were not given these rights; they were segregated, judged, and treated inhumanely.
The Equality Act Julianne Creed Northwest Christian High School English III/H Dr. Yoder February 25, 2022 Abstract America has been struggling with how to address LGBTQ rights for decades. The Equality Act, however, has settled some disputes in this area. Today, the LGBTQ community faces discrimination and violence daily.
I was the only Asian student in my school growing up. In Colombia, the school models are different from the United States, because Pre-school, elementary school, middle school, and high school are merged together into one “super school”, essentially you grow up with the people that you went to pre – school with. This model allows for students to create deeper bonds with their classmates because friendships last a very long time, but it also limits students to be with the same people their whole life, truncating their social skills and their ability to make new friends. I was always different because I didn’t look Latina and despite immigration waves in Colombia, Asians and specifically Chinese are not a big demographic there.
Even today, as Rich Bellis points out in his article, "Only 19 states and Washington, D.C., have passed laws preventing LGBT Americans from being discriminated against by employers. Three others protect employees on the basis of sexual orientation but not gender identity" (Bellis). Although this shows only a fraction of America's minorities, it is still a fair indicator that the American Dream is unachievable to certain groups in America all because their differences cause them to have unequal opportunities for success. This is outrageous, especially when the American Dream means equal opportunity as mentioned in a prior
It is 2016. There are families without roofs over their heads. There are children without food for dinner. There is gang violence; low income areas are riddled with crime and unsafe living conditions. There is racism, sexism, and homophobia.
The LGBT community has been fighting oppression for a long time. Since the beginning of time the topic of being “gay” has been a taboo subject in many cultures. This year same sex marriage has been approved and passed by congress for all states, which has helped the LGBT community take another step towards having equal rights. However, there has been controversy.
Although it has been argued that members of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community should not be granted certain rights, they do not deserve to keep suffering discrimination because everyone should be allowed their natural civil rights. Additionally, a few months ago the LGBT community won a huge battle, same-sex marriage is now legal all over the United States. It was the news many LGBT community members had been waiting for. Yet, some places and states are still very reluctant to follow this law that was ruled by the Supreme Court.