Senate OKs gay rights bill banning discrimination

- Austin American Statesman, http://www.statesman.com/news/ap/political/senate-nears-historic-vote-on-gay-rights-bill/nbkQ2/
- National level
- Equal rights policy
- This policy affects voters, employers, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans.
- All citizens should concern themselves with this issue because it sets standards for workplace practices which influences our economy. The policy also steps toward equal rights among homosexual and bi-sexual populations.
- The recent Senate ruling against discrimination is both shocking and exciting. The ruling shocks me because I have a difficult time understanding why a law must be put in place to begin with. I grew up in a diverse community, and I have been exposed to many different cultures. However, even without exposure to other cultures I would hope that Americans could show enough compassion for other human beings to not discriminate against physical appearances or sexual preferences. The policy is better late than never. Now that a policy is in place there can also be enforcement of workplace discrimination.

 It has taken years to break ground in the fight for equal rights among homosexual marriage. Currently, 14 states have passed laws permitting same sex marriages. I believe the fight for equality has made an impact on similar issues such as the discrimination policy and hopefully more to come.

America is slowly making progress towards civil equality. This issue had me thinking about who the next group of Americans to be discriminated against would be. I thought this because we first discriminated American Indians, then blacks and now gay citizens, with many minority groups in between. It seems that America always has a group to scapegoat our problems on. Of course I don't hope for a new group of citizens to be under the pressures of discrimination, but the American trend has yet to be broken. On a positive note, the civil rights movement in the 1950s took much longer than the current civil rights movement. perhaps the existing polices and mindsets are allowing fast change for the better.