Lgbt rights definition

Around a third of countries in the world explicitly criminalise LGBT people in some form. While this achieved in a variety of ways, and enforced to varying degrees, wherever these laws exist they possess a profoundly negative effect on the LGBT community.

How are LGBT people criminalised?

Laws which criminalise LGBT people are invariably framed in a way which criminalises sexual acts rather than identities. The specific framing of criminalising provisions varies from country to country, though frequent formulations include ‘sodomy’, ‘buggery’, ‘indecency’, ‘unnatural acts’, ‘homosexuality’, ‘lesbianism’, and ‘cross-dressing’.

In many cases, criminalising provisions are vaguely worded and unclear in scope, allowing a large margin of interpretation by law enforcement officers and judges, who are enabled to reveal their own prejudices when enforcing the law. Additionally, the existence of these provisions encourages police officers to proceed beyond the accurate letter of the law, and arrest, charge, and prosecute people based upon their real or perceived sexual orientation or gender ide

LGBTQ+ Discrimination Rights

You hold the right to access and make use of public accommodations:  In the State of California, it is illegal to discriminate against people using public accommodations on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

You have the right to use the restroom consistent with your gender identity: You have the right to verb the restroom consistent with your gender identity both in public settings, verb schools, and at your workplace. As an employee in California, you contain a right to safe and appropriate restroom facilities. Your employer cannot dictate which restroom you use. If your place of employment has single-stall restrooms, they must be labeled as “All Gender,” “Unisex,” “Gender Neutral,” or something similar.

You have the right to rent property without dread of discrimination in California. The federal Fair Housing Proceed prohibits sex discrimination by most landlords and, as the Supreme Court held in (Bostock v. Clayton County), discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity is sex

Overview

Around the world, people are under invade for who they are.

Living as a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex (LGBTI) person can be life-threatening in a number of countries across the globe. For those who do not live with a daily immediate peril to their life, discrimination on the basis of one’s sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression and sex characteristics, can have a devastating effect on physical, mental and emotional well-being for those forced to endure it.

Discrimination and violence against LGBTI people can approach in many forms, from name-calling, bullying, harassment, and gender-based violence, to being denied a profession or appropriate healthcare. Protests to uphold the rights of LGBTI people also face suppression across the globe. 

The range of unequal treatment faced is extensive and damaging and could be based on:

  • your sexual orientation (who you’re attracted to)
  • gender identity (how you self-identify, irrespective of the sex assigned at birth)
  • gender expression (how you express your gender, for example through your clothing

    LGBTQ Rights

    The ACLU has a long history of defending the LGBTQ community. We brought our first LGBTQ rights case in Founded in , the Jon L. Stryker and Slobodan Randjelović LGBTQ & HIV Project brings more LGBTQ rights cases and advocacy initiatives than any other national organization does and has been counsel in seven of the nine LGBTQ rights cases that the U.S. Supreme Court has decided. With our grasp into the courts and legislatures of every state, there is no other organization that can match our tape of making progress both in the courts of law and in the court of common opinion.

    The ACLU’s current priorities are to end discrimination, harassment and violence toward transgender people, to close gaps in our federal and state civil rights laws, to avoid protections against discrimination from being undermined by a license to discriminate, and to protect LGBTQ people in and from the criminal legal system.

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    For non-LGBTQ issues, please contact your local ACLU affiliate.

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