Transgenderism & LGBT: The New Civil Rights Frontier in America


 

 

            As young millennials, we are living in a very interesting time in America. In the month of June alone, there have been two watershed events. One we are still waiting on, which is the Supreme Court’s decision on whether same sex marriage is constitutional or unconstitutional, and the other is the fact that two major magazines in America have, for the first time, put transgender women on their covers.  As many are aware, Bruce Jenner made his official transformation from a man into a woman by debuting on Vanity Fair’s cover as Caitlyn Jenner, and Laverne Cox, also a transgender woman, debuted on Time’s cover, which was a first for a woman of color.



 
            Two transgendered women being able to grace the covers of two major popular magazines has brought to a climax what is going to be America’s newest chapter in the civil rights movement, which will be the fight for the acknowledgement and rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender--or LGBT--community.  Many people think that if we as a society acknowledge the LGBT community and give them the basic human rights that are given to them by the creator, that it will not only condone what many view as a sin, but it will also be vandalizing the Christian codex that many feel the founding fathers put into this country when they wrote the constitution.  But that is not the end of the story, for many people like Caitlyn Jenner and Laverne Cox are making their voices heard, and many of the millennial generation are listening.  For many in my generation see that the philosophies of older generations, like our grandfathers’ or parents’, are not only outdated but also highly discriminative against a group of people who are not only citizens of this great country of ours, but also our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

            There are many who disagree with this viewpoint because they would say that any form of sexuality or sexually deviant lifestyle that is outside of what God has originally assigned to man is not only a sin, but also a form of active rebellion against God’s will. Representatives of God, such as the Southern Baptist Convention, believe that there is only one solution for people who belong to the transgender or LGBT community, which is the following:  

"God's design was the creation of two distinct and complementary sexes, male and female" and that "gender identity is determined by biological sex, not by one's self-perception".[55] Furthermore, the resolution opposes hormone therapy, transition-related care, and anything else that would "alter one's bodily identity", as well as opposing government efforts to "validate transgender identity as morally praiseworthy".[55] Instead, the resolution asks transgender people to "trust in Christ and to experience renewal in the Gospel".  Transgenderism and religion.” Wikipedia. (n.d.) <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transgenderism_and_religion>. [


            In essence, the church believes that people who are transgendered are in an active rebellious state against God’s will, and, therefore, the government can’t acknowledge nor give them basic human rights because they don’t meet the criteria that the church deems to be a healthy normal human being who is functioning within the will of God. This is a slap in every transgender and gay person’s face because the church is stating that they are willingly going through all of the humiliation--in some cases disownment from their families and friends and, in extreme cases, death--for publicity.  It is my generation understands that these people go to some extremes to become a man or woman, to get their marriage legally recognized by all states and not just a handful of states and territories, or to become fully recognized citizens of this country. To say that these people are willing to go through all of this for publicity not only cheapens us as a society but as a country as well! 
 
By  Nadia Johnson

 

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