-Kieran Maynard
The 2004 Gender Recognition Act, the legalization of gay marriage and high-profile celebrities such as Caitlyn Jenner transitioning have all contributed to society become more equal in terms of sexuality and gender, however we still have a long way to go before true equality is achieved.
In the media, there is still a large amount of confusion on the subject as well as fake news this contributes to more sexual orientation discrimination and transphobia, even in 2019 this is a fairly large issue. Until we reach a point where someone's sexuality is not even news we are not equal. The newspaper and TV News stations do not report, ‘Gordon Ramsey is heterosexual,’ so why should anyone report someone is gay? Or trans? This in itself is discrimination and demonstrates we have yet to reach a point of equality.
Public polls support this, polls have demonstrated in 2018 that on average 25% of homeless youth are LGBTQ+ and 77% still fear coming out to their parents as they feel they would not be treated the same.
In a working world, the pay gap proves that we are still not entirely equal but the, lesser talked about, workplace discrimination is also proof towards current inequalities.
In a school environment, there is a large amount of hate this is typically derived from confusion or lack of education on the subject. With the numbers of people identifying as Transgender or Non-gender binary increase this need to change. Over recent years there have been a large amount of improvements leading to a less taboo stance on homosexuality or bisexuality but a school environment is still a place where a large amount of homophobia is found and the lack of attention brought upon the subject leads to an unchanged opinion into the adult years.
If we carry on in work, education and social environments that require the people receiving hate, for something they can’t change, to just take it and brush it off while people sending out hate get away practically hassle free they will make the association that what they are doing is right or fair and it cannot carry on. On a daily basis names like "Gay", "Fag" or "Tranny" are used against people and although people seem to think words don’t affect people mental health studies have said otherwise. What you say effects people and in order to truly be equal, this hate must stop.
The key to change is education, and the recent mandatory changes to education that now mean it is mandatory to teach about same sex marriage in the same way as heterosexual marriage which could lead to a major improvement in how people of the LGBTQ+ community are treated.
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