A battle is being fought and it's a battle for LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) rights. Currently the LGBT communities and its supporters have overcome mountains to get where they are today, but where they are today isn't much better than where they were when this battle started. There currently are no federal laws protecting the LGBT community from discrimination in the work place, or society in general. There is still a lot of hostility towards the LGBT community in the military, and in just about all 50 states it is illegal for same sex partners to get married.
Throughout the country there are many groups such as the ACLU and the HRC (human rights campaign) who are out there fighting the good fight to help the LGBT community to get laws into the books that will condemn hate crimes and discrimination against people of different sexual orientation that the majority of the population. There are also social conservatives who are fighting with organization like the HRC to stop these laws, and are even trying to create ordinances to prevent sexual orientation from being included in any anti-discrimination laws. Currently gays and lesbians are not protected from discrimination by any federal law. California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin currently have laws prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation (www.Speakout.com). Colorado, Maryland, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Washington have barred discrimination in public employment based on sexual orientation (www.Speakout.com).
On April 25, 2000 President Bill Clinton attempted to expand current hate crime laws to include crimes committed based on the victims sexual orientation, gender, or disabilities. This all came after the murder of Matthew Shepard. Shepard was murdered because of him sexual orientation. "The bill that Clinton was trying to put through would have allowed the government to prosecute his murderers under federal hate crime laws" (www.
