Unit 3 - Argumentative Writing Topics: Topic 4 - Anti-LGBTQ+ Discrimination, Bullying & Violence

MAIN IDEAS

• Despite gains made in social acceptance since the 1970s, members of the LGBTQ+ community are subject to stigma and biases that contribute to various forms of discrimination and violence against them.
• Discrimination based on sexual orientation is called homophobia, biphobia, or heterosexism. Discrimination based on gender identity is called transphobia or cissexism. Anti-LGBTQ+ stigma often involves misogyny, or prejudice against women or traits that are culturally coded as feminine.
• Anti-LGBTQ+ stigma and discrimination stem from long-held norms, laws, and beliefs that favor heterosexuality and normative genders while ignoring or demeaning LGBTQ+ people and families.
• Anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups and anti-LGBTQ+ state-level legislation have increased in the twenty-first-century United States, which many pro-LGBTQ+ rights groups view as a backlash against recent gains in social acceptance and federal law.
• Members of the LGBTQ+ community are at higher risk of becoming victims of violence. Compared to the general US population, LGBTQ+ people are as likely or more likely to experience gender-based, domestic, intimate partner, and sexual violence.
• Bullying, cyberbullying, and harassment are of particular concern for their impact on LGBTQ+ youth's mental health. LGBTQ+ youth who experience bullying and discrimination are much likelier to experience thoughts of suicide than those who do not.