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Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Rights

                There are many reasons as to why LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, & transgender) people should be granted the same rights as heterosexual people. In this paper, I will explain how LGBT people have been discriminated against worldwide. I will also provide examples of past court cases regarding the rights of LGBT people, and how they’ve changed the way a number of people view homosexuals as a group.

            I have found 5 different sources/journals from browsing the internet. One source, American Journal of Community Psychology, contains information regarding discrimination among LGBT people from a psychological perspective. Two journals, one being the Journal of Law and Policy, talk about laws relevant to same-sex relationships and “gay rights.” The other two provide examples of how heterosexuals feel about LGBT people and what opinions they have on the topic as a whole, and also some statistics. I do believe that I will need to find more resources that research the different views of people as far as conservatives, religious or even atheist people.

            Some problems I may encounter as I continue my research are arguments from people who believe that the Bible way is the right and only way, and that there’s no changing the way society is going to be. I would deal with this problem simply by including the different ideas said by different people and compare how effective they have been over the past few years.

Sources for Research Topic

1 - American Journal of Community Psychology-Oppression and Discrimination Among LGBT People and Communities: A Challenge for Community Psychology: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) people continue to experience various forms of oppression and discrimination in North America and throughout the world, despite the social, legal, and political advances that have been launched in an attempt to grant LGBT people basic human rights. Even though LGBT people and communities have been actively engaged in community organizing and social action efforts, research on LGBT issues has been noticabley absent within the field of psychology that is clearly focused on community research and action--Comunity Psycology. The psychological and social impact of oppression, rejection, discrimination, harassment, and violence on LGBT people is reviewed, and recent advances in the areas of LGBT health, public policy, and research are detailed. http://www.springerlink.com/content/l411067qmx8016tq/

2 - Outlaws & Inlaws: Your Guide to LGBT Rights, Same-sex Relationships and Canadian Law:

The purpose of this handbook is to provide information on how lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans-identified (LGBT) people, and those in same-sex relationships, are affected by the many recent legal and political changes across Canada. Numerous laws, for example, provide both rights and responsibilities to those in same-sex relationships. In recent years, these laws have been changing at a dramatic pace.http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=fAabfIHbDykC&oi=fnd&pg=PP7&dq=LGBT+rights&ots=tbysqA-oAw&sig=OrcjbIKOZKyO2K8H7QzrbkDF-TI#v=onepage&q&f=false

3 - Journal of Law and Policy: The Sex Discimination Argument In Gay Rights Cases: The argument that bars a sexual relationship between two women or two men discriminates on the basis of sex because either partner could have had the same relationship with a person of the opposite sex. Courts considering challenges to marriage laws concluded that marriage was defined to be only for male-female couples, and therefore even a state amendment couldn't undo the prohibition on same-sex marriage. Court cases involving employment discrimination went from discrimination against women or men to anti-gay discrimination. http://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/jlawp9&div=35&g_sent=1&collection=journals

4 - Public Opinion Quarterly: Values, Political Knowledge, and Public Opinion about Gay Rights: This article examines how political knowledge has shaped the effects of traditional morality on American public opinion about gay rights. The results suggest that the extent to which political knowledge moderates a valu's effect on opinion can depend on whether public debate provides an unquestionable frame or competing frames for that vallue. In turn, one could frame the implications of this finding for democratic politics in more than one way. http://poq.oxfordjournals.org/content/67/2/173.full.pdf+html

5 - Canadian Journal of Political Science: Political Institutions and Lesbian and Gay Rights in the U.S. and Canada: This journal discusses LGBT studies and comparative politics. The author explains why Canadians have gone much farther and faster in extending gay rights than Americans, despite a more skilled and organized LGBT movement in the US. Canadians enjoy the full complement of rights and freedoms that gays and lesbians have sought during the past several decades. Little over half of the US population lives in places that grant basic civil rights protections to gays; most states ban same-sex marriage and only a handful permit marriage or a similar status. The US legalized homosexual conduct nationwide, but over 3 decades after Canadians did.

Research Topics

Topic 1: Cell Phones - How have cell phones changed us socially? We are constantly on our cell phones whether it's for work, school, or just pleasure. Yes they're helpful when we need to get on the web, listen to music, or just contact colleagues, friends, and family, but when we have to be forced to put them away in order to get other important work done, that's when we know they've become our number one problem in society today.





Topic 2: Gay Rights - Why can't GLB (gay, lesbian, bi) people have the same rights as heterosexual people? Homosexuals are rejected time after time in everyday life. They're rejected when applying for jobs, attending church, and when they want to get married, and by society as a whole daily. Heterosexuals view homos as a "different" and unacceptable race of human beings. Homosexuals may have different views on people and how the world operates, but in the end we're all humans and whether we're hetero or homo should not be the reason as to whether or not we're able to succeed in life.

Thesis on Picture

One of the many changes that have occurred over the past few years is the drinking age. Not the legal drinking age, but the ACTUAL drinking age. I believe this picture is saying that as time passes by, more and more under age teenagers are drinking, and also that the age is continually decreasing.

Which Image??

Fat is an Advertising Issue

After reading the required text, I was able to conclude that many products in the world, specifically DOVE products, in a way can negatively affect the human race, females to be exact.  Susie Orbach was brought in to help the DOVE employees confront questions that were relative to their advertisings of the company’s product in order to make the campaign effective.  These questions included: how does this marketing help women’s and girls’ self-esteem, how could it harm them, how can they spread good feelings about women’s bodies rather than promoting insecurity, and how can they give women a chance to enter into a new, contented relationship with their bodies?

Products are advertised in certain ways, such as in magazines and showing “perfect” bodies, in order for the company to get more sales, but the outcome of doing so is the fact that it’s promoting females to have unhealthy practices.  Along with using products, females want to look like the DOVE models that are in the product advertisements.  As a result, other companies, such as Revlon, were following DOVE with advertising their products in the same way.

                The unhealthy practices of young females have spread from the US to other parts of the world.  After doing research with Anne Becker, the Harvard psychiatrist and anthropologist, Orbach found out that 3 years after the introduction of TV into Fiji, 11.9% of adolescent girls were puking into the toilet bowl trying to change their Fijian build into one that resembled the images shown through their TVs.  Orbach states that after looking at magazines, young females’ self-esteem lowers significantly, proving that the advertisements are negatively affecting the human race all over, making us unhealthy people.

                A different way to go about advertising DOVE’s products with a healthier and positive effect could be to produce bold, startling, appealing images of women in all their elegant variety that would dent the visual field, so that women could appreciate themselves for their differences and uniqueness.