Analyze Gay Rights Movement

Gay Rights Movement

Civil rights have been generally defined as affirmative legal promises governments make to protect privileges and power of the specified group of people or citizens of the nation. Civil rights movements have been way by which many marginalized groups have gained legal protection against discriminatory actions. The laws protecting civil rights of citizens may be written or implied. Examples of such written laws in United States are constitutional amendments such as 13th Amendment outlawing enslavement of peoples and 19th Amendment protecting right for women to vote. In the self-proclaimed democracy such as United States, these rights have been revered as essential components of the just society. The right to “life, freedom and pursuit of happiness,” for example, is the phrase well known to many Americans. The United States' own history, however, reveals violation of these civil rights for multiple communities defined by racial, ethnic, gender, sexual orientation, social class, and religious group memberships among others. (Perrin 311)

To understand needs and become advocates in struggles of marginalized groups, mental health providers must first have the foundation and knowledge of histories of these groups. The following is an outline of historical civil rights violations of marginalized groups in United States and subsequent movements fighting for protection of those rights. (Kruks 518)

History of Marginalized Groups

African Americans

African Americans, more than any other group, have been at center of civil struggles throughout U.S. history. Their struggle for liberty began with first law passed by Virginia Assembly in 1661 making persons of African descent slaves for duration of their lives. The U.S. Constitution implicitly recognized right of White landowners to hold slaves; it was not until implementation of 13th Amendment of 1865 that slavery and involuntary servitude were outlawed. Jim Crow laws helped circumvent these rights by allowing virtual enslavement of poor Blacks through sharecropping and legalized segregation of schools, transportation, and public accommodations well into 20th century. (Hunter 99) The 14th Amendment of 1868, intending to protect emancipated slaves from physical and legal retaliation of their former masters, also failed to do so as African Americans were persecuted by organized terrorist groups such as Ku Klux Klan. Following Supreme Court decision of Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, legal segregation and principle of “separate but equal” were sanctioned by law. By far most influential civil rights organization in African American movement, National Association for Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) pressed issue of equality all way back to Supreme Court. Today legacy of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision in 1954 demanding desegregation of public schools helps protect rights of people of color; women; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) persons; and persons with disabilities. The leaders of civil rights movement of 1950s and 1960s, including Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Rosa Parks, were inspiration for tactics and concepts that sparked and empowered subsequent movements for women, Latinos/as, Asian Americans, Native Americans, LGBT community, and poor. (Hunter 99)

Asian Americans

Asian Americans have not only been subject to violations of civil ...