Lgbt Community Oppression

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, oppression is defined as unjust or cruel exercise of authority or power. When groups of people are not being treated fairly in our society, it is usually because someone with power essentially does not share the same views as them. Groups are being oppressed for various reasons. Whether they are a different religion, a different race, a different social class, or even a member of the LGBT community they are typically being oppressed. The LGBT community has been oppressed for quite some time and while changes have been made in their favor, there is still a very long way to go. Just this past month, some of the southern states have passed laws that oppress the LGBT community greatly. While the LGBT community has been faced with oppression for some time, I will start by talking about the most recent events that have occurred in the United States. On April 5, 2016, Mississippi governor, Phil Bryant, signed a religious freedom law. The enactment of this law allows people with religious objections to deny wedding services to LGBT couples. With this law in effect, it also gives other businesses and employers the right to use
religion as a way for them to also control what bathrooms people use, what locker rooms they go in, how they should dress, and also how one is allowed to groom themselves. Essentially, passing this law and putting it into place, is taking away so many simple rights that everyone should have no matter who they are or what they believe in. Bryant defended this bill, as he says it is protecting religious beliefs, but instead of doing that I feel it is just oppressing a group that is already faced with so many adversities. This law is moving us backward in our society, specifically in Mississippi and of course not all that live there are happy about this. Executive director of the ACLU, the American Civil Liberties Union, Jennifer Riley-Collins has spoken out saying, “This is a sad day for the state of Mississippi and for the thousands of Mississippians who can now be turned away from businesses, refused marriage licenses, or denied housing, essential services and needed care based on who they are,” Mississippi is also receiving backlash from many other states, including New York. This law is hateful and wrong, and it is taking away the rights that everyone should have.
Aside from Mississippi’s latest laws, North Carolina and Tennessee have also recently implemented new laws that are blatantly anti-LGBT.
North Carolina has recently also passed a new controversial law, which is called the “bathroom law.” This law has banned Transgender people from choosing which bathroom they can use that is constant with their gender identity. This law will allow schools, locker rooms, and any changing facility that is multiple person capacity to require people to only use the bathroom that is the same as their biological sex that is listed on their birth certificate. North Carolina is saying that they have the power to tell someone who they should be, even if that is not who they identity themselves as. It is ridiculous and is taking away the freedoms that we are given as
Americans. Following in suit, Tennessee has similar plans to ban transgender students from choosing their bathroom that is associated with the gender they identify with in the schools. It is unfair and unjust to tell someone who identifies as a certain gender to tell him or her they are not allowed to use that bathroom. The way I kook at it, is forcing someone who was born female and to then ban them from using the women’s bathroom. There is no difference in my eyes.