LGBT Rights: To extend or not to extend?

Human rights, as discussed, encompass dozens of cultural and societal norms; these norms are political and moral, concerned with the interactions between people and with how the government treats its citizens. These rights are inherent within all people and have been set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights along with a number of other international treatises. While there are certain, rare circumstances where a number of rights may not be absolute, for example the right to freedom of movement may be lost temporarily for committing a crime and being sentenced to prison, for the most part our human rights remain undiminished for the duration of our lives. So then, theoretically once a norm is deemed a right and added to some form of legal or international doctrine it becomes a permanent right for everyone. But what happens when the traditions or culture of a society actively target one specific group of people and work towards the deprivation of some human right, and worse yet, succeeds. Is it then required or desired to take measures in order to expand rights to that group, assuring they are recognized and protected. Or does the act of specification in fact hinder the innate concept of human rights, that everyone is afforded the same rights?

Historically the United States has addressed these questions with the expansion of full, equal rights to women and again during the civil rights movements of blacks in the 1960's; and we must again engage in this discussion as we consider the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender persons in contemporary America and abroad. Ideally it would be enough to point out that human rights are inclusive of all people, no matter race, gender, religion, or sexual orientation, sadly though our own history has proven it is not. Therefore, I think we have the responsibility to our fellow men and women who may identify themselves under the umbrella of LGBT to specifically extend the rights everyone else is imparted.

It was important in passing the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments for inclusion of blacks and the 19th Amendment for women, that these groups were recognized as minority groups who were being targeted by the majority. Following this some will argue that the LGBT movement should not be compared to the women and black civil rights movements, however I think this group encounters the same types of issues those groups did. Openly gay citizens are prohibited from serving in the military, same sex marriage is illegal in all but a handful of U.S. states, and benefits offered to heterosexual couples are not extended to their gay counterparts. These are government hindrances of well established rights to public service, to marry and found a family, and equal recognition under the law (UDHR). Not to mention the harassment and physical abuse still suffered by LGBT persons at the hands of fellow citizens, a direct violation of their right not to be subjected to torture or cruel punishment. All of these injustices occur because gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered people belong to a different sexual orientation-- this encapsulates the epitome of a minority group. The U.S. Supreme Court even decided in Romer v. Evans, 517 U.S. 620 (1996) that Colorado legislation preventing gay and lesbians from claiming protected status to be unconstitutional. This sets up the case to be made for extending rights specifically to LGBT members as a targeted group.

Due to the tradition of mistreatment, it is our duty to pass legislation extending full rights and setting up full protection of those rights to the LGBT community; including but not limited to full marriage and benefits rights, the right to serve in the military, and protection from abuse based on sexual orientation and identification. Some may lay claim that legislation directly setting a group apart defeats the purpose behing universal human rights, but I think this is a shortsighted and naive view point. In the end, most important is the recognition that all people, no matter what the circumstances, have the same rights and equal protection of them. Unfortunately law and treatises explicitly aimed at certain groups is necessitated by our culture and society; moreover legislation is not enough, a shift in our society and its views is also compulsory. To accomplish this the LGBT community must be willing to dialogue with those groups and people who believe them to be evil or sinners or what not in an attempt to alter opinion. And I think to a large extent this is being done and has been on going for a while. Evidenced by the growing number of young people open to the pursuit of gay rights and a changing public opinion over the past decade. Traditionally American culture has been slow to welcoming groups that represent difference from the status quo, we're especiallys slow in recognizing the rights of those people, and for this reason it is unavoidable that we specifically expand rights to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered people, in the name of human rights.