Why is workplace discrimination still an issue in this day and age?

Why is workplace discrimination still an issue in this day and age?

In the U.S. Senate earlier this month, the first gay rights bill on workplace discrimination passed. This bill would prohibit discrimination and harassment on the basis of sexual orientation. Everyone should support the rights of LGBT (lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender) people. Honestly people, it’s 2013. Why is this still an issue? Our species has been to space, humanity is on the verge of creating meat that requires no animals to die, and people are still being discriminated against because they like someone of the same gender. It’s completely ridiculous.

Separation of church and state is a thing regardless if one supports it or not. We are a country of equal rights. In America, who you are does not change if you get equal protection under the law. The fact that someone can be openly harassed in the workplace, legally, is appalling. As a country, the way that we treat people who are different than us reflects how the rest of the world views us. And when other countries show respect to LGBT people, it really shows how far behind we really are. People should be capable of going to work without fear that their workplace is going to fire them because they like the same gender. People need to be able to go to work without fear of humiliation and harassment. We go to work to work. That’s our right.

The fact that some people find LGBT people to be inferior in this day and age is disgusting. Imagine if we still believed this way about African-Americans. There would be pandemonium in the streets. The world needs to stop thinking of people with alternative sexualities as different. They are no different than you and me. If we keep thinking of every group of people in the world as different instead of thinking of them as the same, we’ll never get anything accomplished as a society.

Nobody should be afraid to be who they are. We treat people so differently because they’re of a different color, because they’re from a different country, because they like different things than we do. We should all just come together instead of falling apart.

This is America. We’re supposed to be a utopian society. We’re supposed to be a first world country. Instead, we argue amongst ourselves over petty differences. We need to take a stand. Nobody liked being bullied in school, and nobody should have to be bullied in the workplace.

Andrew Garland, Mineral Ridge