Gay Rights: Struggle for Social Justice
Homework #1
09/07/13
The struggle by the powerless to achieve social justice is the change having the most impact in our society. This is the fight by the minority of the population for equal rights and respect as the majority. The main minority group that is fighting for their rights in society today is homosexuals. “Gay rights” have always been an issue but never as relevant as they are now. Beliefs on homosexuality being a choice or not differ, and because of this, many people are against rights such as marriage, adoption, and military service for gays. “Homophobes” (people who fear gays) and very religious people are usually the one’s very openly opposed. The Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kanas is one of the churches that has gained a lot of fame through the media for picketing funerals based on their belief that God was killing people because of the gay’s actions. One of the most high profile cases was the picket of the funeral of Matthew Snyder, a United States Marine who was killed in Iraq in 2006. Their picket signs stated “Thank God for Dead Soldiers” and others saying “God Hates Fags.” The father of Matthew filed a lawsuit that went to the Supreme Court. The court ruled 8-1 that the churches actions were protected under their Freedom of Speech. These instances cause gay right’s supporters to fight harder for equality. Recently, a Christian owned bakery in Gresham, Oregon was forced to shut down after many threats and gay protests of their shop. This all started when the bakery refused to bake a wedding cake for a lesbian couple, causing many LGBT (Lesbian-Gay-Bi-Sexual-Transgender) to attack their business in different ways. The couple who owned it stated that they had nothing against homosexuals but did not want to help celebrate the marriage of two women because of their faith. Both groups on the different sides of this struggle have been right and wrong. They have both taken drastic measures on people who have not directly
09/07/13
The struggle by the powerless to achieve social justice is the change having the most impact in our society. This is the fight by the minority of the population for equal rights and respect as the majority. The main minority group that is fighting for their rights in society today is homosexuals. “Gay rights” have always been an issue but never as relevant as they are now. Beliefs on homosexuality being a choice or not differ, and because of this, many people are against rights such as marriage, adoption, and military service for gays. “Homophobes” (people who fear gays) and very religious people are usually the one’s very openly opposed. The Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kanas is one of the churches that has gained a lot of fame through the media for picketing funerals based on their belief that God was killing people because of the gay’s actions. One of the most high profile cases was the picket of the funeral of Matthew Snyder, a United States Marine who was killed in Iraq in 2006. Their picket signs stated “Thank God for Dead Soldiers” and others saying “God Hates Fags.” The father of Matthew filed a lawsuit that went to the Supreme Court. The court ruled 8-1 that the churches actions were protected under their Freedom of Speech. These instances cause gay right’s supporters to fight harder for equality. Recently, a Christian owned bakery in Gresham, Oregon was forced to shut down after many threats and gay protests of their shop. This all started when the bakery refused to bake a wedding cake for a lesbian couple, causing many LGBT (Lesbian-Gay-Bi-Sexual-Transgender) to attack their business in different ways. The couple who owned it stated that they had nothing against homosexuals but did not want to help celebrate the marriage of two women because of their faith. Both groups on the different sides of this struggle have been right and wrong. They have both taken drastic measures on people who have not directly