Life has never been easy, at least not for everyone. There has always been a community of people who have not been treated by the “equal eye” of others within the society. There has always been a lot of people who were not considered part of the general public as a whole. Years back in India for instance, it was the “Dalit community” that translates to “untouchable” in English. The name given to these people is self explanatory as to how much discrimination they faced. A pinch of religion here and there to spice it all up, making it even worse for those who were considered Dalit. Even the shadow of a Dalit was considered a bad omen if it were to fall on some one else (especially if he or she were brahmin). It didn’t take long for people to protest against this kind of discrimination and soon after India attained independence, people were granted equal rights and discrimination of caste would be a punishable offense. Moreover people were more than willing to to help people who face the brunt of poverty due to discrimination of caste and now have several NGOs for their aid. Nonetheless, discrimination has come around in many ways and one can agree that the LGBTQ community could be among one of the most discriminated lot of people in the world.
The abbreviation LGBT stands for lesbian gay bisexual and transgender. Although minority they are equally a part of our society. Not many people fall into this group and the people who do shouldn’t feel any lesser than those who don’t. No matter what their sexual orientation is, or their gender identity might be, they are still part of this society, or at least they should be. People don’t like what they don’t understand and being part of this minor community brings you to the top of the “hate list”.
The injustice and difficulties these people faced have been taken to a whole new level, and if someone were to go ahead and make a list of what these people faced, the list could go on endlessly. Violence for one is something that is now more or less common to those who fall under the LGBTQ community. Hate crimes against the LGBT individuals still exist across most parts of the world. In the U.S for example, one in five hate crimes that were committed were because of differences in sexual orientation, and another 2% of crimes were committed because of their gender identity. Every second citizen believes that homosexuality is a disease and every tenth, that one has the “wrong” sexual orientation must be rewarded with beatings. It was considered a greater shame if one’s child turned out to be gay, than if he ended up being a criminal or murderer. Being part of the LGBTQ community was sufficient enough to receive a “death sentence”. Young children were not very welcome at school and ended up being victims of bullies that targeted them just because they were different. There was a time when is some countries being part of the LGBTQ community made you legible for a capital punishment such as Death penalties.
Moreover, this was not the only way they were discriminated . One of the earliest and easiest ways society discriminated against LGBTQ people is via housing. In 2017, a study claims that gay men and transgender people are less likely to be shown apartments by landlords. In the united states, there are more states were there is no protection for people who come under this community when it comes to housing. There are around 28 states that legally allow people to deny housing whatever the reason can be. A survey says that about 75% of the people on average are shown lesser units when compared to others.
People who are a part of this society worry about not receiving proper medication. They worry about being mistreated, harassed, and denied service overnight. For example, there was this instance where a hospital denied a man who suffered from HIV, proper medication when they learnt that he was gay. A pediatrician refused to treat an ill infant just because she had same-sex parents.
People in the LGBT community also often go on without any employment. Offices refuse to employ them just because they had a different sexual orientation or gender identity. They fail to put it into their stereotypical minds that being different makes no difference on one’s performance and doesn’t mean that he or she don’t have the required skill set, and then deny them basic necessities.
There also existed if it doesn’t now, a hic-cup in the child adoption possibilities for LGBTQ couples. Same sex parents aren’t always given an opportunity to raise children by orphanages. They think that LGBT couples won’t be able to give as much care as the conventional couple would be able to give. Such thoughts are what make life hard for people who happened to fall under this community. Children of LGBT couples often find themselves in a difficult situation of ragging and bullying just because of the fact that their parents were different.
And it sure doesn’t end there. There is still a long way to go before they can be considered equal on a global scale. That said, people are now more than willing to help these people and change is more than evident when considering their condition even upto 10 years ago.
A new research from the Williams Institute at the UCLA school of law finds that the average acceptance and the rights of LGBT people have increased over the years. Researchers have developed a new ground-breaking measure of LGBT inclusion called the Global Acceptance Index. A lot can be expected to change if the living conditions of these people were to be considered normal in today’s world. Even if it may take years to find it’s way to normalcy there is still a ray of hope for them to have happier lives in the future. Support from world icons like Prince William certainly helps too.
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