Smith1

Celine Smith
Ms. Ennis, Period 4
AVID 10
January 21, 2014
Dont Judge a Book by Its Cover
He finally did it. He got his response for his Eagle Scout application. He opens it to find
that for some reason his application was denied. As he read on, he found out his application was
not accepted because he was gay (Martinez, Watts, and Hackney).
Discrimination comes in all forms. There is discrimination because of race, gender, or
religion. But to me, one of the worst types is when you discriminate someone because of sexual
orientation. Because of this discrimination gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender teens are five
times more likely to miss school because of bullying. Around 28% of homosexual teens are
going to drop out of high school because the just do not feel safe (). People discriminate
homosexuals for many reasons. Some think homosexuals have some sort of disease; they think
that if they are around a gay person that they're going to become gay. Others like to make fun of
homosexuals for the simple fact that some think homosexuals are weak. All of this taunting and
bullying can actually drive teens to suicide. Homosexual teens are actually four times more
likely to commit suicide than their straight classmates (Gibson). The discrimination does not stop
when homosexuals get out of high school. Due to discrimination, lesbians earn around 14% less
than their heterosexual counterparts, even with all the same schooling, age, and job position
Smith2

(Badgett). If we want to make this happen less often, we have some rather large things to
overcome first.
Some pretty large obstacles stand in the way when trying to stop discrimination against
homosexuals. To me, one of the biggest is society itself. Society sets this double-standard for
homosexuals. It encourages you to be completely comfortable with yourself, but there is one
little catch. You have to be Societys definition of comfortable with yourself. You have to act a
certain way, you have to look a certain way, and it can get pretty crazy trying to understand.
Society basically says, Oh, you are gay? That is great! Oh, wait, do you look like this? No?
Well, do you act like this? You are still saying no? Dang, you really are a freak. Another
problem is all the laws put in place restricting gay marriage. There are some states where gay
couples do not get the same rights as straight couples. There are many examples of this on almost
any news website you go to.
First, there is a teacher in Pennsylvania who got fired for getting a same-sex marriage
license. The teacher, Michael Griffin, sent an e-mail to the principal saying he would be late to a
school function because he was going to pick up his marriage license, but instead of the principal
being ok with it, he got fired for being gay (Farr). Another story is about a gay couple being told
they had to leave a Wal-Mart because they were gay. The couple did not even do anything
wrong, one of the employees realized the couple was gay and told them they had to leave
(Huffpost).
There are some things we can do to prevent things like this from happening. First of all,
we could stop judging people for these items of unimportance. Honestly, what is the point of
judging someone for something like that? If we all could just get along, this wouldnt be a
Smith3

problem! If we could learn to accept everyone for whatever little differences they have, the world
would be a much different place. Is kindness truly this difficult?
Another thing that could be done is to raise awareness on the subject. Some people
honestly do not know the problem even exists. If the problem has raised awareness, the problem
might even sort itself out. I believe it would be especially important to raise awareness to adults.
Most high school students know the problem exists. But some adults do not even think about
something like that being a problem. If older people knew about and understood the problem,
they might help do something about it. You never know, it could mean life or death to hundreds
of teens and young adults, maybe even their own child.
There are some organizations out there right now trying to raise awareness for
discrimination against homosexuals. One of those is the Human Rights Campaign. The Human
Rights Campaign is the largest civil rights organization trying to get equal rights for gay, lesbian,
bisexual and transgender Americans (""). Another organization is the It Gets Better Project. The
It Gets Better Project is all about communicating to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth,
telling them that the world does eventually get better. Both of these organizations have received
celebrity recognition and support, including Ellen DeGeneres, Anne Hathaway, Lady Gaga,
Cyndi Lauper and Joe Jonas among others (Savage, and Miller).
The major problem of homosexual discrimination needs to be stopped. This problem
affects people every day. People can get kicked out of stores or lose their jobs, all over the
simple fact of their sexuality. But we can stop this. We can raise awareness of the problem. We
could also just learn to be nice to everyone. Even if you feel like you can do nothing to stop the
Smith4

problem, there is always something you can do. Even if it is just saying hey to someone, or
getting someone to sit with you at lunch, it could mean the world to someone.
Smith5

Bibliography
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, "Anti-Gay/Lesbian Victimization," New York, 1984.
Web. 20 Jan 2014
Gibson P., LCSW, "Gay Male and Lesbian Youth Suicide," Report of the Secretary's Task Force
on Youth Suicide, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1989. Web. 20 Jan
2014
Badgett, M.V. Lee, "The Wage Effects of Sexual Orientation Discrimination," Industrial and
Labor Relations Review, July 1995. Web. 20 Jan 2014
Farr, Stephanie. "Michael Griffin, Gay Pennsylvania Teacher, Fired For Obtaining Same-Sex
Marriage License." Huffpost Gay Voices. N.p., 19 01 2014. Web. 20 Jan 2014.
Huffpost, , ed. "Jonathan Pacheco, Oklahoma Man, Claims He Was Asked To Leave Walmart
Store Because He Is Gay ." Huffpost Gay Voices. N.p., 11 07 2013. Web. 21 Jan 2014.
. N.p.. Web. 20 Jan 2014. <http://www.hrc.org/the-hrc-story/about-us>.
Savage, D., and T. Miller. N.p.. Web. 20 Jan 2014. <http://www.itgetsbetter.org/pages/about-it-
gets-better-project/>.
Martinez, Michael, Amanda Watts, and Deanna Hackney. "Gay Scout's request for Eagle rank
rejected." CNN U.S.. CNN, 9 01 2013. Web. 20 Jan 2014.