Essay Sample about Oppression of LGBTQ+ People

Oppression of LGBTQ+ youth and adults has been an ongoing issue for a long time. It was brought up at the beginning of the pandemic and many people have been speaking out for or against it since. Some people have even become violent over it. This topic brings up a lot of questions about whether being a part of the LGBTQ+ community is a bad thing, whether it's right to exclude others, and why people can't be civil.

First, what does LGBTQ+ stand for? LGBTQ+ is an acronym meaning lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, and more. A few other notable sexualities and gender identities you may have heard of are asexual, non-binary, and demisexual. These labels are used to describe one’s sexuality, gender, and romantic feeling towards others. The majority of the world consists of straight cis people, meaning they are boys who were born boys who like girls who were born girls and vice versa. These straight cis people are the ones who are most offended by the LGBTQ+ community and thus discriminate and oppress them.

The dictionary definition of oppression is prolonged cruel or unjust treatment. It includes excluding and/or mistreating others for just about any reason, including race, religion, sex, and/or disabilities/illnesses, and it also includes sexuality. It's only been thirty years since WHO declassified homosexuality as a disease and there are still seventy countries where it’s illegal to be gay (Forbes). Many religions claim that homosexual people are bad in some way or another. Some paint them as villains who will harm your children, others claim they work for the devil, but believe it or not, being gay was accepted in most societies until one global superpower showed up.

The Catholic Church has engraved in our minds that being gay is a sin and we’ll be sent to hell for it, but homosexuality was common in other cultures. The Church claims that the bible says that being homosexual is a sin, but according to HRC.org, it's a mistranslation of meaning. One of the main verses people use to claim homosexuality is a sin originally said the Roman practice of older men having intercourse with young boys, aka pederasty, is sinful. Another set of biblical verses that “prove” homosexuality is a sin is the story of Sodom and Gamora and Levites concubine. The main ‘characters’ in this story are homosexuals that perform intercourse and get smited in some way. The problem wasn’t homosexuality, however. It was about sexual violence and the stigmas of the area. People pick and choose what they want from the bible without looking at all the context, and they also pick and choose what they want to believe in. The bible also says that wearing jewelry and eating bacon are sins, but I’ve never met a Catholic woman who doesn’t wear jewelry of some kind or a family that doesn’t eat bacon after church on Sunday. If they aren’t going to listen and follow the whole bible, they shouldn’t pick verses to belittle or discriminate others.

Some businesses won’t hire queer people simply because they are queer or “look gay”. Others won’t hire them because of the risk of hate crimes or bad business. Sometimes when coworkers find out about another coworkers sexuality, they become hostile or harrass them in some way. This isn’t always the case, but it happens enough that it is reported on. Just looking “gay” can drop your resume to the bottom of your employers list of possibilities.

Oppression of LGBTQ+ people has been a problem in the military and government as well. An act called the “Don't Ask, Don’t Tell,” act was passed in 1993 and was active from February 1994 till September 2011 (lsu.edu). This act allowed closeted LGBTQ+ people to be active in the armed forces as long as they didn’t come out to their comrades. If you didn’t tell people you were gay you could fight but if you came out to anyone you would be kicked out of the service. Another way they still discriminate against homosexuals is the Defense of Marriage Act. This act allows couples to have base access, health care, and military pay along with other military benefits. The act itself is fine, but the problem is that it doesn’t recognize same-sex marriages as real marriages. It defines marriage as the union between one man and one woman, and thus the government only recognizes those marriages. There have been attempts to give more benefits to same-sex couples, but they still don’t have as many benefits as heterosexual couples (globalsecurity.org).

School is also a breeding ground for oppression of many types. Children are bullied for wearing the wrong thing, acting weird, looking different, and many other reasons. Children are bullied and ostracized for liking people of the same gender or for presenting differently from the gender they “were born with” because they are taught that it's wrong from a young age. From parents talking about how bad queer people are to our societies idea that girls have to play with dolls and boys have to play with dirt, many children grow up homophobic without knowing the other side of the issue. School is already a place of high stress, anxiety, and depression, but this added obstacle can push children over the edge. 

This oppression has even followed people home. Families have been torn apart because some members believe that being queer is bad. This leads to anxiety, depression, and even suicide in some cases. Children are often led to believe that their families, no matter how accepting they may be, will abandon them or hate them if they come out. This causes many children to wish they weren’t born or that they didn’t feel these feelings so they’ll still fit into their families. 

Society has, as uncomfortable as it makes us, let many children, young adults, and adults die due to this oppression. It refuses to change laws and allow people to love who they love just because some people think it's against their religion or beliefs. If people don't like others beliefs, they should just avoid the people that upset them. There's no need for all the death and pain it causes. Society needs to take action toward abolishing these awful laws that cause people to be outcasts from their friends, their families, and our society.