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 LGBT−rights 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 the United States the whites speak well of the Blacks but think bad about them, whereas the Blacks talk bad and think bad about the whites. Whites fear Blacks, because they have a bad conscience, and Blacks hate whites because they need not have a bad conscience.”
—Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990)
“Rights! There are no rights whatever without corresponding duties. Look at the history of the growth of our constitution, and you will see that our ancestors never upon any occasion stated, as a ground for claiming any of their privileges, an abstract right inherent in themselves; you will nowhere in our parliamentary records find the miserable sophism of the Rights of Man.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)
“In the United States the whites speak well of the Blacks but think bad about them, whereas the Blacks talk bad and think bad about the whites. Whites fear Blacks, because they have a bad conscience, and Blacks hate whites because they need not have a bad conscience.”
—Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990)
“Sean Thornton: I don’t get this. Why do we have to have you along. Back in the states I’d drive up, honk the horn, a gal’d come runnin’ out.
Mary Kate Danaher: Come a runnin’. I’m no woman to be honked at and come a runnin’.”
—Frank S. Nugent (1908–1965)