This week we have been reading about the law and its problems. The legal system and laws that we follow surround us every day, but for some of us the law recently has been directed at me as an American gay man. There are laws that are in affect to punish us for being gay. In this week’s blog, I would like to share some personal thoughts and feelings on this matter and tell you some laws in this country and other countries that have been put into place to punish gay men and women.
When I was young, I knew that I was different from other boys, but could not figure out quite what was different until I was in middle school. I realized that I liked boys and I discovered what this was called, being gay. With this discovery, I also found out that society for the most part in the 1980’s deemed it wrong and punishable. I watched at school how feminine boys were beat up listened to adults talking about how a “fag” was beaten for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. To add insult to injury the police did nothing to stop this. Therefore, at an early age I learned to hide myself from the laws of the schoolchildren and the legal system that hated us.
Legal Entity of the Gay Community
As time passed I looked into the laws, in particular the ones dealing with gays and I would like to share some of the information that I have learned. Homosexuality and American Law, treatment of homosexuals by the law has increasingly suggested that discrimination on homosexuality employees a “suspect classification” subject to “strict scrutiny” under modern Fourteenth Amendment Jurisprudence, with judges and scholars employing language to equate discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation with already forbidden racial discrimination practices (Karlan, 2004). Not too long ago the state I live in, Texas lifted their law banning sodomy and this past year a video was posted on Facebook that was removed showing two men in the Middle East being 
hanged for their acts of homosexuality. When I looked into this issue, I discovered that seven countries Iran, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, and Nigeria put gay and lesbians to death. I am deeply troubled by this matter and could not believe that such barbaric methods were being used against people whose only crime was being who they were born to be.
As of 2014
Out of bitterness can come some sweets. As of this year, 32 states have legalized same-sex marriage and with public support, the rest of the states will surely follow allowing the right to marry whom they love. For more information please visit the Freedom to Marry website. With this new openness across the United States, more celebrities are coming out of their star-studded closets to support the gay community and help change laws that have kept them locked in the dark.
Jim Parsons
‘Big Bang Theory’
Sir Ian McKellen
‘Lord of the Rings’
Sarah Paulson
‘American Horror Story’
Laws are slowly changing and will continue to change for the gay community as it did for the African American community but we still have miles to go to reach an equal level as other Americans. Changes take time and we need to educate those in our community, but in order to reach the rewards it will take hard work and one day we will have new laws to protect the gay community and the old laws abolished that have hurt the community.
Karlan, P. S. (2004). LOVING LAWRENCE. Mich. L. Rev., 102, 1447-2001.