Fifty years after the Stonewall riots queer rights have come a long way. It would be easy to lean back and tell yourself that it’s a job well done. It would have little to do with reality though. There are many major milestones still to achieve and we even have to be careful not to lose some of the progress made so far.
Since Trump took office as president of the U.S. Nazis, religious extremists and other homophobes feel safe again in speaking their mind and often actions follow soon after. Trans people of colour are being murdered on such a regular basis that the subject became a major point for candidates in the presidential race. And that is just the gruesome tip of the iceberg.
Many queer Americans feel the consequences of a homophobic racist running the country. The acceptance of queer people even among young Americans dropped for the second year in a row and most queer Americans don’t dare to hold hands in public because they fear to be met with violence and discrimination.
In a survey 85% of respondents said they were scared when displaying this type of affection in public spaces. Only 15% said they had no fear at all of holding hands or showing other displays of affection in public.
More than three quarters of queer Americans surveyed said they believed that transgender people experienced more discrimination. With this in mind, just over 80% of trans people said they were “very” or “somewhat afraid” to hold hands in public, and not a single respondent said they had “no fear at all.”
26% of the respondents have personally experienced discrimination in the workplace. With 47% the number was almost twice as high for trans people. 12% of queer Americans said they had been refused service by a business before while 36% of trans people had such an experience.
Of all queer people surveyed, 77% said they were discriminated again sometimes or often when they apply for jobs. In terms of offensive slurs; 59% of queer people said they had been called a slur, and 81% of transgender people said the same.
However, people said there was also discrimination within the queer community itself. The types of prejudice cited as problematic included transphobia (60%), sexism (51%), and racism (52%).
Among LGBTQ people, 40% would not date a trans person. For gay gay men specifically that number was even higher at 66%.