Civil Rights for Lesbians and bisexual women Living USA

Living in the primarily heterosexual USA

Our “civil rights” in the USA
Many people think that you cannot be discriminated against in housing, public accommodations, education, or employment, if you are a gay man or woman. WRONG. I have been harassed by neighbors; told there were no vacancies at motels, even though their glaring neon sign said differently; advised not to come out on campus or I might lose my grant; and I’ve been fired from three jobs for being a lesbian. These things have been pretty devastating, to say the least.

I even had one employer hire a private investigator to track me. I had worked for him for over two years, and I was up for a promotion to assistant manager. When the investigator verified that I was lesbian, I was fired without notice right in the middle of the ’80s recession. I went from being the head buyer for a store to squeezing dogs’ anal glands in a grooming parlor, Of course my employers did not say my sexuality was the reason. No, they said I was a drug user, which was totally untrue—I don’t even drink—and that I was “an unreliable employee.” Hmmm. I guess never being late to work or missing a day in two years means unreliable to some people.

Now, you must remember this was in the deep South, where intolerance is a daily right to every God fearin’ homophobe, but there are people like this everywhere you go—people who are pointing one finger at you with three pointing right back at themselves!

Don’t laws protect us from discrimination?
Not in most states, but most everyone I’ve spoken to thinks we are protected. An acquaintance of mine who has a doctorate said “If I got fired I’d go to the Lambda Legal Defense and Educational Fund and get them to help me.”

The Lambda Legal Defense Fund is a great organization, but there is little chance that they would even being able to do anything, unless you are in one of the states that have civil rights legislation for gay people written into their laws.

Those states are as follows: California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin. Of the eleven only Massachusetts, New Jersey, Vermont, and Wisconsin have laws which prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation in all categories. The categories are: public employment, public accommodations, private employment, education, housing, credit, and union practices. This information was compiled from the Lambda Defense and Educational Fund Website, so it may have changed by now.

If you want to live in a state that fully protects its gay citizens, then I’d say do some research on the ones listed above to make sure that the antidiscrimination laws have not been repealed or amended. Keep in mind that the laws are not going to change ignorant, intolerant people, and if you get into a lawsuit with a private individual, you can bet it will be a nasty fight to the bitter end...