Why Full Legal Equality Is Needed

I have encountered a number of straight individuals who just do not seem to "get it" as to why same sex couples need full marriage equality, not to mention full employment non-discrimination and hate crimes protections. They vapidly ask why civil unions are not enough - of course THEY would never settle for a civil uion, but they expect gays to accept what they themselves would not.

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But the real issue is far larger than marriage. As long as gays are denied full equality in marriage, lack protection from employment discrimination, are targets of bullying and abuse, and are not treated as full equal citizens, LGBT individuals receive an insidious constant message that we are inferior. This message gets internalized and too often has disasterous if not fatal results. At the same time homophobes are emboldened to engage in anti-gay conduct. All of which, of course, is precisely what the Christianists, Mormons, and Islamic hate merchants want. A story from Australia looks at the fatal consequences this whole sick reality means for gay teens who continue to kill themselves in disturbing numbers. Here are some highlights:

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Suicide attempts among lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) school students in Queensland are at disturbingly high evels, a report shows. . . . Open Doors surveyed 164 LGB students across the state, and 37 per cent of respondents said they had attempted suicide in the last 12 months, with 82 per cent considering taking their own life. The report also revealed a general attitude of fear among LGB students, with 81 per cent saying they had experienced bullying based on their sexuality.

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"Clearly current school anti-bullying measures do not adequately protect LGB students; this is providing a discriminatory educational environment for LGB students which is illegal." . . . Shaun Staunton, the chairman of a committee on homophobia in schools for the Queensland Association for Healthy Communities, said the levels of bullying in schools were extremely worrying. "These incidences of bullying are often minimised or seen as harmless, and they can have serious effects and often lead on to more serious types of abuse, so it's really important that these things are noted and treated as quite serious," he said
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[O]ne of the keys to making schools more homosexual-friendly was to educate all students that heterosexuality was ot the only definition of normal. One of the solutions he [Staunton] proposed was the promotion of homosexual role models in schools, but he conceded there were a lot of prejudices that needed to be overcome first. "To come out in a school as a teacher is to take a huge risk really, it's not just young people who can be discriminated against, teachers and other workers in schools can be discriminated against and not receive support from principals and whoever else," he said.