LGBT Rights In The United States
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights in the United States have evolved over time and vary on a state-by-state basis. Unlike some other developed nations, the United States does not extend complete legal rights to its LGBT citizens on a national level. Sexual activity between consenting adults (age of consent in each state varies from age 16 to 18) and between adolescents of a close age, who are of the same sex, have been legal nationwide since 2003, pursuant to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Lawrence v. Texas.
Family, marriage, and anti-discrimination laws vary by state. Nine states plus Washington, D.C. currently offer marriage to same-sex couples. California and Rhode Island do not offer same-sex marriages but do recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere. Additionally, some states offer civil unions or other types of recognition which offer some of the legal benefits and protections of marriage.
Twenty-one states plus Washington, D.C. outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation, and sixteen states plus Washington, D.C. outlaw discrimination based on gender identity or expression. Hate crimes based on sexual orientation or gender identity are also punishable by federal law under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009.
Adoption policies in regard to gay and lesbian parents also vary greatly from state to state. Some allow adoption by same-sex couples, while others ban all "unmarried couples" from adoption.
Human Rights Campaign is the largest LGBTârights advocacy group in the U.S.
Read more about LGBT Rights In The United States: LGBT Rights and Federal and State Law, Reparations, Public Opinion
Famous quotes containing the words united states, rights, united and/or states:
“In one notable instance, where the United States Army and a hundred years of persuasion failed, a highway has succeeded. The Seminole Indians surrendered to the Tamiami Trail. From the Everglades the remnants of this race emerged, soon after the trail was built, to set up their palm-thatched villages along the road and to hoist tribal flags as a lure to passing motorists.”
—For the State of Florida, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“I wish to reiterate all the reasons which [my predecessor] has presented in favor of the policy of maintaining a strong navy as the best conservator of our peace with other nations and the best means of securing respect for the assertion of our rights of the defense of our interests, and the exercise of our influence in international matters.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“The white American man makes the white American woman maybe not superfluous but just a little kind of decoration. Not really important to turning around the wheels of the state. Well the black American woman has never been able to feel that way. No black American man at any time in our history in the United States has been able to feel that he didn’t need that black woman right against him, shoulder to shoulder—in that cotton field, on the auction block, in the ghetto, wherever.”
—Maya Angelou (b. 1928)
“On 16 September 1985, when the Commerce Department announced that the United States had become a debtor nation, the American Empire died.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)