wp4----Argument Paper ----I also need the outline for this Argument Paper
Mandalay 13
Cover Letter
In this draft, I first revised myself, before reading the peer responses. I noticed that towards the end of my paper, I started to ramble about information, which did not contribute to my argument. I deleted the content, and replaced it with a discussion about how Christians are supposed to love through actions, not just words. This was a better solution/argument, to fit with my paper. I also added a couple more statistics in the appropriate location, to show more emphasis on the topic being discussed in that paragraph.
I noticed a few words and sentences that needed to be changed, to gain attention of the audience more. I wanted to use the word gays, instead of LGBT, in some contexts, because I feel like it is a more disrespectful word when put how people say it, then in the next sentence with a solution, go back to LGBT, to show an emotion of more calmness when there is a solution to a problem. I also saw a misspelling in my title, a few other misspellings, grammatical errors, and other words that needed to be changed.
In the last paragraph, I used the same line from my title, to wrap the whole paper together as well. I fixed those, and then looked at the feedback from the final draft of the third writing project. I tried to rephrase sentences, which I thought might have been worded awkwardly to prevent confusion and make the reading easier. I also did not use attributive tags as often as needed in my last essay, so I had fixed those issues in this final draft of my essay. When making attributive tags in this essay, I have tried to introduce the author or source before just inserting a quote. I also learned from my feedback about the appropriate places to paraphrase and where to properly use the ellipses. My Working Outline gave me some guidance as well. The feedback showed me that I did not have a clear counterargument, but I am still rebutting opposing views throughout my essay by combatting stereotype and discrimination.
Brad Mandalay
Prof. Trent Sands
ENGL 111 (English Composition)
23 April 2014
“Life, Liberty, And The Pursuit Of Happiness”?: The LGBT Struggle
Suicide is a word that excites fear. The thought of another human being so desperate that they decide to end their own life is too much for some to even comprehend. When we look at the statistics that The Trevor Project claims, that LGBT youth between ages 10 and 24 have a 4 times higher likelihood, and questioning youth in the same age range have a 3 times higher likelihood, to try to commit suicide as their straight equals (“Facts About Suicide” 2), we can see a trend in severity, as the suicide rate is higher for those who are fully associated with the LGBT lifestyle. The cause for these high rates of suicide come from the discrimination of the LGBT community in our nation. The discrimination today against LGBT people is present, in our schools, our society, our homes, and by our government, which contributes to the highest suicide rates in the world for any demographic. Families starting discussions in their homes about the acceptance of LGBT people can start to help lower this high rate of suicide in the LGBT community, and hopefully one day, make the rate equivalent to the rate of the general population, if not less.
The LGBT community’s high suicide rates are already a hard topic for most to talk about, but thinking of an LGBT teenager taking their life is even more unsettling, especially for parents. An article recently posted on People.com, by Steve Helling and Mykia Milliken told an unsettling story of a girl who had killed herself due to the lack of acceptance she had experienced for being transgender. The story of Leelah Alcorn, who “stepped into oncoming traffic and was struck by a tractor-trailer,” is tragic, but a good example of LGBT teen suicide. What kind of pain does a person have to be in to take their life in such a dramatic way? There is an obvious message and an attempt for a shock factor. When you end your own life, there is a shock to anyone who knows you, but to take it to this level shows signs of how painful some of these lives, like Alcorn’s, are. As a society, we have pushed the LGBT community so far into the closet that members are willing to become martyrs, so that future generations won’t experience the same hate. They are literally showing the world their pain through these extreme acts of escape. With the numbers that show how common suicide is and the extreme anguish in the suicides of those who are fully into the LGBT lifestyle, we have clear evidence that our current policies and practices regarding LGBT rights are flawed. Opponents of this may argue that these teens are troubled, or they come from a home that would lead them to commit suicide anyway, but when parents drive their own children to suicide, or suicidal thoughts, we still have a problem. Alcorn had said in a Tumblr post, “Please don't be sad, it's for the better. The life I would've lived isn't worth living in ... because I'm transgender… and I've felt that way ever since I was 4… I immediately told my mom and she reacted extremely negatively, telling me that it was a phase, that I would never truly be a girl, that God doesn't make mistakes, that I am wrong” (Helling and Milliken 2). This last post she had ever made was part of the suicide note that Leelah Alcorn had written before ending her life. According to The Trevor Project, LGBT youth who are raised in families who reject and lack acceptance of LGBT preferences are 8.4 times more likely to have tried to commit suicide as LGBT individuals who stated they had little to no rejection in their families (“Facts About Suicide” 5). The solution to these types of problems is acceptance and understanding. Whether or not Alcorn was transgender, having parents and friends to talk to would have made her life more bearable. Isolation is how we punish our worst prisoners, not our youth. It is hard to imagine any of the LGBT teens (or any other age), like Alcorn, trying to escape this life if they had an open dialogue with their families and were accepted as the children of their parents.
In this country, women date men who abuse them and give excuses to their friends about ‘why he is a good guy,’ and although not as common, men are abused by women too. We are much more accepting of abusive relationships than we are of consenting ones between gay or transgender people. There is an obvious flaw in that thinking, especially if you have ever met the victims of domestic abuse, yet we have no legislature being written that increases penalties and protects these men and women. Indiana’s Governor, Mike Pence, through his recent Religious Freedom Act, which by law allowed the discrimination of gays in a business, found it more important to protect the small percentage of religious people who oppose gay marriage or relationships than to handle issues, like abuse, which affects a larger portion of our population. In March of 2015, Indiana’s Governor Pence put into law The Religious Freedom Restoration Act. In an article from Time Magazine, Jonathon Rauch said, “The problem with Indiana’s new religious-freedom law… isn’t what’s written in the statute; it’s the intent with which the statute was written. The laws are now seen, not inaccurately, as targeting gay and lesbian Americans” (Rauch 3). This law was supposed to provide freedom for religions but was turned into a loophole to discriminate against LGBT individuals and couples in a business. Much of the reasoning people used for discriminating against LGBT people before the recent change in law, according to Josh Sager on The Progressive Cynic, was that, “being gay is a sin, thus it should be banned by law” (11). Being gay though, is only a sin in some religions, so why should a law revolve around one religion? In our constitution, under the first Amendment, it states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion” (U.S. Constitution. Amend I). Many argue that LGBT rights are already fair, and according to Katy Steinmetz in a Time Magazine article, “nearly 90% of people believe that it’s already illegal to discriminate against gay and transgender people, there are no such laws in the majority of the United States” (2). If those arguing on the opposing side of LGBT rights are so misinformed, they should not take a stance on the subject. For every person who has stood up against gay marriage, not one has mentioned protecting marriage from any other ‘threat.’ It seems to be an attack directly on the rights of the LGBT community as a whole, excluding them from the fundamental, human right of choosing a partner and having a relationship. These acts cause men to be in fear of how society views them and makes men have to go on sites like Craigslist to find someone to have a secret encounter with. According to Michelangelo Signorile in a Time Magazine article, this can lead to “often dangerous sexual encounters with other men rather than making free choices about their sexual and emotional interactions and enjoying the rites of passage of dating and relationships just as heterosexuals do” (5). If they are so adamant about protecting the sanctity of marriage, where are the new laws protecting physically, mentally, or emotionally abused spouses? Other than the fact that Pence ended up changing the law to not act as a tool to discriminate against LGBT people, there are other solutions that could have taken place before the original law was even issued. Just weeks ago in Utah, according to Jonathon Rauch, “The state passed new religious-conscience accommodations, but they were tied to new gay-rights protections” (10). This ended in a win-win for everyone, and could have been an option for Indiana to do instead of originally allowing the discrimination of LGBT people.
Again, in the same article Rauch said “The laws are now seen, not inaccurately, as targeting gay and lesbian Americans” (Rauch, 2). Laws are the rules that each, and every, person in our country must abide by. When we have politicians that are making it possible to discriminate against citizens, we have a situation where people are forced into hiding who they are. Geena Rocero, a transgender super model who recently came out of the closet about who she really was on a global conference website called TED Talk, said how she was afraid to come out before, “not because I thought what I am is wrong but because of how the world treats those of us who wish to break free” (Rocero, 2:28). These actions made by lawmakers and society create consequences for the ones having to hide. One of the most devastating examples being when a man fakes a relationship with a woman, and has children, because of his family, religion, and in some cases the state they live in, have made him feel wrong for being gay. According to Michelangelo Signorile, “The barriers preventing men from building openly gay lives in certain parts of the country are clearly specific to the local social climate” (3). When we look at the fact that, “the rate of Craigslist searches by men seeking casual encounters with men is higher in Mississippi than in New York, while there’s a higher rate of gay men seeking dates and relationships on Match.com in New York than in Mississippi” (Signorile 3), we can see an example of what LGBT individuals are forced into because of the stigma associated to the relationships they desire, based on geographical location. This lifestyle of having to live as someone you are not, being oppressed for so long, and having to sneak around to satisfy yourself, can cause so much pain and anxiety for a person. This is where the emotions can turn into actions.
Instead of working on real issues, we are stuck in an old pattern, a pattern we have seen many times. We know it is ineffective, but we still continue to follow it. We segregate a group, treat them like they are not human, and then after much conflict, we give in and honor the rights they deserved in the first place. This old model of racist, bigoted thinking, is exactly what is happening today with the LGBT community. Thankfully, when your standing comes from ignorance and hate, you usually don’t think things through before acting. A great example is Indiana’s new bill, which was written with the intent to discriminate. It was rewritten by the governor of Indiana, Mike Pence, who in Katy Steinmetz’s Time Magazine article said, “approved changes to the state’s newly passed religious freedom law that make it clear the measure can’t be used to discriminate” (3). The people who tried to pass this law as an excuse to refuse service to gay or transgender people, didn’t count on it being rewritten. They worded their law to give people of religion that do not support the LGBT community the right to refuse service and to ask them to leave their business. Now their own law forces them to accept LGBT customers. Another example of a failed attempt at hate is Carroll High School principal, Patrick Taylor, who improvised on the school rules so he could discriminate against one of his best students, Claudettia Love. Love was not allowed to go to her prom with her same-sex date because the principal would not let her wear a tuxedo. He claimed instead that there is a strict dress code that girls must wear a dress. We see that these were his own rules when we examine a comment made by the School Board President, Rodney McFarland, in Justin Worland’s Time Magazine article, “As school board president, I don’t agree with Carroll banning her from prom just because of what she wants to wear - that’s discrimination…You can’t just go making up policies” (6). You cannot get a better statement that shows that the principal was acting on his own judgment out of personal interest. That man’s job is to protect his students, and he is using his own wording on the school’s rules so he can punish Love for his own, personal reasons. Principal Taylor took it into his own hands to single out and punish a girl for her expression. This is not an issue of a dress that was too revealing, like some Principals have banned in the past with great success. Love was trying to show the world who she is, through the style that she felt represents her.
Even with all of this proactive hate, there is hope. Wellesley College, an all female college, said in Laura Krantz’s Boston Globe article, that they will now consider any applicant “who lives as a woman and consistently identifies as a woman” (2). This is a big step, considering that most ‘all female’ schools are exclusive to women who are born as a female only, and exclude transgender applicants from being considered. If a college like Wellesley can adopt new guidelines to make their students feel safe to be themselves, even if it may change their traditional model, maybe our country can follow suit. It is open arms that will lower the LGBT suicide rate, not closed minds. Although the acts of a gay person are forbidden according to some in the Christian faith, the Christian religion also believes in treating every person with love. Jesus never said only show your love with words, he wanted people to show this through actions. Being religious does not force someone to discriminate. Exclusively female organizations are opening up to the idea of expressing one’s gender, why can’t the rest of society?
The oppression of a person’s self-expression is hurting many and we cannot continue to discriminate against sexual orientation, or gender preference. Sexual orientation and gender preference is not a choice, it is not a disease; it is how someone is born. These acts of discrimination and oppression of the LGBT community has caused problems but has never created a positive solution. Suicide, hidden love lives, and losing family and friends, are all realities of living a closeted LGBT life. When you lose everything, suicide can seem like the only option, especially in a world that you have to hide from. Until we have acceptance, this won’t change. Children will still hide their lives from their parents and their peers. Society will still mock LGBT individuals for being different. We are at a point with this, where we have been with African Americans, Women, Little People; and the list goes on. We have made this mistake before, and we know it doesn’t make sense to wait until things have gotten out of hand. We can learn from our history, and succeed where our forefathers have failed. These are human beings, who deserve every facet of the human experience, and especially love. According to our country’s Declaration of Independence, America was based on “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” (The Declaration of Independence, 2), so why can’t LGBT Americans pursue happiness with us?
Work Cited
"Facts About Suicide." Thetrevorproject.com. The Trevor Project, n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2015.
Helling, Steve, and Myndi Milliken. "Transgender Teen Leelah Alcorn Drive to Suicide?" People 19 Jan. 2015: 48-51. Academic Search Premier. Web. 9 Apr. 2015.
Krantz, Laura. "Wellesley College to Accept Transgender Women." The Boston Globe 5
Mar. 2015. Web. 20 Apr. 2015.
Rauch, Jonathan. "What Indiana Could Learn From Utah About Gay Tolerance." Time
30 Mar. 2015: n.pag. Academic Search Premier. Web. 9 Apr. 2015.
Rocero, Geena. "Geena Rocero: Why I Must Come out." TED Talk. Mar. 2014. Web. 27
Mar. 2015.
Sager, Josh. "Refuting Anti-Gay Rights Arguments." The Progressive Cynic 18 Mar.
2013. Web. 21 Apr. 2015.
Signorile, Michelangelo. "The Surest Sign That Homophobia Still Exists Is The Size Of
America’s Closet." Time 31 Mar. 2015: n.pag. Academic Search Premier. Web. 9 Apr. 2015.
Steinmetz, Katy. "Why Religious Freedom Bills Could Be Great For Gay Rights." Time
2 Apr. 2015: n.pag. Academic Search Premier. Web. 9 Apr. 2015.
U.S. Constitution. Amend I.
Worland, Justin. "Gay Student To Miss Prom After Louisiana School Says No Tux."
Time 5 Apr. 2015: n.pag. Academic Search Premier. Web. 9 Apr. 2015.
