The Daily Gamecock

Column: LGBT rights don't end in courthouses

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With the conclusion of June, many cities across the country and globe celebrated the ideas of diversity and unity. Pride month has become a sort of kick-off to the summer for many, even those who are not in the LGBT community. The festivals and parades have brought people of many different backgrounds together.

I attended an event in Nashville, Tennessee, and while it was brief, it was truly amazing to see the unification of people, gay or straight or anything in between. It is a concept that we need to see more of especially in the divisive climate of American politics.

The LGBT community has come very far in the past few decades. Today, around 62 percent of Americans approve of same-sex marriage. However, this road was paved with the bravery of individuals who were willing to defend the rights of a group of people who had been oppressed.

With the landmark Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, same-sex marriage was legalized nationwide. A landmark day now, when “love won,” now has many people wondering what is left for the LGBT community, what more they need. The fight is going from a courtroom to the living room—while same-sex couples are being granted more rights, that doesn’t mean that everyone is accepting of them.

Having these rights in a courtroom and having them in the streets are two very different things. African-Americans were given constitutional rights with the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments directly following the Civil War. And yet, we still needed a civil rights movement to cement these rights to make them common threads in the everyday fabrics of people’s life.

That is the point that the LGBT community has reached. Legally, they have all the rights that any other American has. The goal now is to make it where socially they are treated just like every other American. For college students, this isn’t an absurd idea. Most of us don’t care who you are with, as long as you’re happy.

Having that sort of environment that you can be yourself in is great, but for many students there are two different realities. The one that they have in college, where they can be themselves, and the one that they must go home to.

And that is that next big step for the LGBT community, when they no longer have to worry about going home. Or worry about being two different selves: the one that their family thinks that they are, and the one that their friends know them to be.

While it’s undeniable that Americans have made great strides with LGBT rights it is also irrefutable that there is more work to be done. While we continue to progress, let’s foster the ideas of unity, equality and most importantly, love.


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