In almost half of the United States and in many cities and towns across the United States, homosexual people are still not protected from discrimination. Whereas African-American, Latino, Asian, and Jewish face dreadful discrimination, they have the possibility of legal recourse. Homosexuals however, cannot always fight discrimination in the courts.

If a person willingly commits or is accused of committing a crime, that person has certain legal rights and protections

Another belief that is stagnating equal rights is the belief that homosexuals can change the way that they feel. ?Reparative therapy? was the name given to techniques that would ?alter? a homosexual?s perceptions of self. Gregory Herek, a doctor at the University of Davis, wrote a paper titled Attempts to Change Sexual Orientation about the iniquitous results of the Family Research Council (FRC), a once-prevalent name in the reparative therapy field. Dr. Herek states ?claims made by the Family Research Council, [regarding patients] of ?successful? conversions through reparative therapy are filled with methodological ambiguities and questionable results. They are also ethically suspect.? Furthermore, the FRC either taught or forced many of their patients to ignore or suppress their homoerotic feelings (Herek). Some of the procedures used were extremely painful, causing some patients to lie about their conversion in order to get out of their ?therapy?. The FRC did not turn any homosexual into a heterosexual.

There is no clear reason for someone to choose to be homosexual. Many homosexuals live in small, rural communities with very little diversity and even less tolerance for it. Alteration of the words ?gay,? ?queer,? and ?faggot? are common in these communities, with the new ?definition? of these words being wrong, stupid, bad, or unacceptable. Unfortunately, this extends further than the youth of these communities. Parents have been known to use the terms the same way that their children do. There is no reason for this kind of discrimination and prejudice. While many homosexuals have learned to ignore these jeers, there is one kind of discrimination that they cannot ignore ? discrimination in the health care system.

. These rights and laws do not necessarily cover unconscious decisions. One such decision concerns homosexuality. While experts are still divided as to what causes homosexuality, more and more evidence is pointing to ?natural? causes rather than ?nurture? causes. Author Kevin Schattenkirk wrote in an article for the Washington University Daily that "the only choice involved with being gay is when a person decides between living in the closet and hiding behind a facade, or deciding to accept, acknowledge and BE who they are."

More liberal Christians tend to look upon the Bible as containing many translation errors, whose verses should not necessarily all be taken at their face value. Passages often relate to customs of a long-past era that cannot be applied in today?s society. Verses which accept and regulate slavery or limit the rights of women or condone what we now regard as child abuse are ignored. Passages which might be interpreted as condemning homosexuality might also be not applicable today.

Many corporations and government entities are against non-discrimination and marriage legislation because they believe that it would cost more for insurance policies and would reduce the amount of taxable income. Recent studies done in New Jersey showed that recent domestic partner law would save the state up to $61 million per year (Badgett). These savings would then be passed on to corporations and further down to individuals.

Another tactic

Some topics in this essay:
HIV AIDS, Armed Forces, University Daily, , Sorokin Current, Data Legislation, Robinson Canadian-based, APA DSM, United Sates, Asian Jewish, sexual orientation, glbt community, armed forces, rights protections, reparative therapy, fbi data, fbi data legislation, homosexual couples, heterosexual couples, equal rights, simply homosexual, family research council, human rights campaign,