by Katie Bonnar
Several days have now passed since one of the worst hate crimes in history was committed against the LGBTQI+ community. The world watched the horrific scenes unfold as lone gunman; Omar Meetan murdered and injured people in the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida. This shocking attack has thrown up several issues now firmly on the agenda.
The first of which is how the LGBTQI+ community is treated in America and throughout the rest of the world. Many states now recognise same-sex marriage, however, there are a variety of more subtle areas[1] where there are no laws to protect people from an LGBTQI+ background or that the law is unclear.
Many of the Southern states have a ban on same-sex adoption. In addition, states in the South East have no anti-discriminatory laws in relation to employment and housing. At a federal level, hate crime laws extend protection for crimes related to one’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Yet, at state level, more than ten states have hate crime laws that lack the inclusion of gender identity or sexual orientation. Over thirty states still do not include gender identity in the legislation at all.
According to the ‘Do Something Campaign’[2] in America, 42% of people who are LGBTQI+ report living in an unwelcoming environment. One of the most disheartening statistics from this campaign is that 6 out of 10 LGBTQI+ students report feeling unsafe at school and most schools do not define categories of bullying. This makes it difficult to target homophobic bullying specifically.
It is still illegal in America and in the UK for sexually active gay or bisexual men to donate blood – which has sparked controversy after the massacre in Orlando. Many gay men were turned away from the blood banks in the aftermath of the shooting.
It would be remiss if we ignore the main the reason behind the slow progression of rights for the LGBTQI+ community. Why is it that the Southern States are much further behind than many other states? The answer is the strong role that the right-wing Christian lobby play in these states. It is not coincidence that the states that still advocate a ban on abortion or still deny basic rights for gay people are driven by fundamental Christian ideology. This group believe that coming from LGBTQI+ background undermines traditional family values and is fundamentally against God.
This belief was shared by Meetan who carried out the attack in the name of radical Islam. Fundamentalist extremists from each faith share hatred of gay people. The rights for the LGBTQI+ community will only progress in America and elsewhere in the world, when people who purport extreme ideology have no influence.
[1] http://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2012/may/08/gay-rights-united-states
[2] https://www.dosomething.org/facts/11-facts-lgbt-life-america
Katie Bonnar is the joint national spokesperson of the Scottish Socialist Party