Reputable amongst other countries, the United States is a global superpower, the face of liberation — and an esteemed moral compass overall. Like all other nations, America thrives to obtain the perfect utopian status, yet unlike many, citizens here actually have the power to alternate this government for the better.
Yes, America has gone through with its history of civil rights violations and social reforms, but what is striking is the reluctance of leaders to defend and maintain its ideals of human rights, the very foundation of this government.
Just a few days earlier, our President had instigated a new course of human rights violations that has taken our country — not left, right, or forward — but thirty years back in time. The heart of a discriminatory story that would always play out in homes, schools, and workplaces, has now seeped into the healthcare system.
On the anniversary of the Pulse Nightclub shooting, the massacre that explicitly killed 49 members of the LGBT community, the Trump administration rolled back an Obama regulation prohibiting discrimination towards transgender and LGBT+ members in healthcare.
The President’s ruling, overriding section 1557 of Obama’s Affordable Care Act, strips transgender patients of protection from discrimination in healthcare. With that, America has lost its moral compass.
In a 2016 survey conducted by the Williams Institute, statistics revealed that an estimated 0.6% of U.S adults identify as transgender. Although the percentage might appear minimal, a good number of people now live in fear of going to their next doctor’s appointment. In a country where everyone is supposed to be treated equally, the LGBT+ community isn’t even being treated as human.
To deal such a blow on such an important date— the fourth anniversary of the Orlando shooting— is a slap to the face. It has caused a massive stir-up, where even the Human Rights Campaign has spoken up about it.
“We cannot and will not allow Donald Trump to continue attacking us. Today, the Human Rights Campaign is announcing plans to sue the Trump administration for exceeding their legal authority and attempting to remove basic health care protections from vulnerable communities including LGBTQ people,” Alphonso David, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement.
It’s shameful to say that pets and animals in the U.S. have more rights than LGBT+ members do. Dead bodies are given more dignity than a living, breathing member of the LGBT+ community. The Trump administration has claimed to be in support of the LGBT+ community, but they are far from supportive.
On the first day of Pride Month, all the lights of the White House were turned off, a tradition that usually meant the death of the president. Our previous presidency saw the White House lit up in rainbow colors in solidarity for the LGBT+ community. The difference in respect is astronomical, and something must be done.
In a country where people are encouraged to speak out and fight for their rights as citizens, the poor, the different, the unique are welcomed, albeit represented by a man who discriminates against them.
The LGBT+ community is made up of people and therefore, deserves to be treated as such. They are human. Nothing more, nothing less than human. Change must happen, and change will happen this upcoming November in the voting booths.
