Sexual Orientation

Sexual Orientation Discrimination
Our declaration of independence states that all men are created equal. However there is still discrimination based on people’s sexual orientation. People discriminate towards people’s sexual orientation because of the supposed threat to the institute of marriage, as well; there is still the debate to whether or not sexual orientation is biological. It is still bad because discrimination kills.
According to the article Sexual Orientation Discrimination, there are many types of discrimination. Sexual orientation discrimination is when someone treats another individual differently solely because of his or her sexual orientation (Sexual Orientation Discrimination 1). There are also many different types of stereotypes that I think lead to discrimination. It’s just a phase, all gay men will die from aids, all gay men are feminine or desire to be women, someone made him gay (Ramon Johnson 1), these are all examples of stereotypes in which I think leads to discrimination. While people think these thoughts about homosexuals, they may tend to treat them differently because of it. Some examples of discrimination in the workplace are that you are not being hired, promoted, or fired because you are homosexual (Sexual Orientation Discrimination 1). Sex jokes, comments, and asking for sexual favors are forms of harassment (Sexual Orientation Discrimination 1). Your partner does not get the job benefits of your workplace if you’re not married (Sexual Orientation Discrimination 1), which seems like discrimination to me because you’re not allowed to get married in some states.
I believe that discrimination towards people’s sexual orientation exists because of the way our society views homosexuality. In many states same sex marriage is illegal. All of their arguments for opposing gay marriage have been heard in Hawai’i courts and found that they are not relevant. They have said that marriage is an institution between one man and one woman, marriage is for procreation, same-sex couples aren’t the optimum environments in which to raise children, gay relationships are immoral and violate the sacred institution of marriage, and same-sex marriage would threaten the institution of marriage (Bidstrup 1). No one has the authority to define marriage. Everyone can choose whom he or she love or marry. To me, saying this is like saying that only men can play soccer and today there are thousands and thousands of women playing soccer. Couples don’t need to be married in order to procreate. If marriage is for procreation, infertile couples shouldn’t be allowed to marry (Bidstrup 1). In order for homosexual couples to make a family they either need to adopt or have a sperm donation and many couples have chosen to start families. When adopting, they adopt children from heterosexual relationships that have “failed” (Bidstrup 1). I think that a raising a child depends on the amount of love that the child is surrounded with, not the genders of their parents. Everyone defines marriage in their own words and makes their own rules. We have the right to freedom of religion so in that case the bible should have nothing to do with determining whether or not same sex marriage should be legalized. Author Scott Bidstrup states, “If you allow gay people to marry each other, you no longer encourage them to marry people to whom they feel little attraction, with whom they most often cannot relate sexually, and thereby reduce the number of supposed heterosexual marriages that end up in the divorce courts.” This let people be themselves and not be afraid of expressing the person they really are.
There has always been the argument of whether or not sexual orientation is biological. Many homosexuals try to hide their sexuality because of the way society views it, but few actually know how sexual orientation is determined in a person. Sexual orientation isn’t a choice, it’s like being born left handed or right handed with very few ambidextrous people (Meyers 476). If we don’t discriminate people based on being left or right handed why would we discriminate based on sexual orientation? Homosexuals learn their sexuality during childhood play (Meyers 476). Men tend to play with dolls and women tend to play with more masculine and tougher things. Some people choose to go against who they really are and want to fit in with society and go to therapy to reorient their sexuality. Reorientation is very rare (Meyers 476), I think this is because people don’t get to choose what sexual orientation they want to be. It’s already in them, and no matter what they do to try and change it, it’s not changing, the attraction they feel for the same sex will always be there.
Discrimination is always bad and leads to many things. The way society views things is what causes the discrimination. Society turns homosexuals to suicide (Bidstrup 1). They create many stereotypes that are untrue and make prejudice actions because of them causing homosexuals to not fit in to our society. Not fitting in is a horrible feeling. A lot of people go through it. Suicide is known to be more common in homosexual men, not heterosexual men (Bidstrup 1). Therefore, discriminations kills, if not so by itself, it will eventually lead to it.
Discrimination toward people’s sexual orientation kills but it still survives because of the supposed threat to the institute of marriage and from the fact that very few actually know how a person’s sexual orientation is determined. It is very hard for a homosexual person to live in today’s society, yet even harder in society 50 years ago. I believe that a person’s sexuality shouldn’t change the way someone else looks at them and neither should anything else for that matter.

Bibliography

Bidstrup, Scott. Gay Marriage, The Arguments and the Motives. N.p.,
3/6/2009. Web. 4 April, 2011. .

Bidstrup, Scott. Homophobia: the fear behind the hatred. N.p., 9/3/00.
Web. 3 Apr 2011. .

Johnson, Ramon. "About.com." Gay Stereotypes. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Apr
2011. .
Meyers, David G. Psychology. New York: 2004. 741. Print.

"Workplace Fairness." Sexual Orientation Discrimination. N.p.,
19/12/2008. Web. 3 Apr 2011. .

Bibliography: Bidstrup, Scott. Gay Marriage, The Arguments and the Motives. N.p., 3/6/2009. Web. 4 April, 2011. . Bidstrup, Scott. Homophobia: the fear behind the hatred. N.p., 9/3/00. Web. 3 Apr 2011. . Johnson, Ramon. "About.com." Gay Stereotypes. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Apr 2011. . Meyers, David G. Psychology. New York: 2004. 741. Print. "Workplace Fairness." Sexual Orientation Discrimination. N.p., 19/12/2008. Web. 3 Apr 2011. .