Explain and examine a current issue in the LGBTQ community in depth.

Explain and examine a current issue in the LGBTQ community in depth. Examples might include the struggles faced by trans athletes, housing discrimination, homelessness, bathroom bills, discrimination against gay men in blood donations, and more. To avoid getting into cultural complications, I would prefer that you focus on the United States. You can choose to stay local with an issue that affects the community in Rhode Island or consider a broader issue. You may need to do some initial online research to find a topic.

Your essays should include an in-depth description of the issue, the history of the problem, who it affects, why it matters, and what social justice measures are being taken to overcome the issue. Finally, you should include your own stance on the issue and what steps you believe would be useful in mitigating the issue. Of course, I am not expecting you to solve the problem on your own. However, since the course is partially focused on social justice and activism, you should at least indicate what steps you agree with.

A very broad example: For some time, gay men were banned from donating blood due to concerns about HIV. This is discriminatory since all blood is screened for HIV and other issues anyway. Many groups have been lobbying to get these regulations changed. Some progress has been made, and now gay and bisexual men are allowed to donate provided they state that they have not engaged in sex with men for at least a year. Many feel that this is still discriminatory and I agree. There is nothing to prevent people from lying, the blood is screened anyway, and it excludes people in monogamous relationships who are not engaging in risky behavior. This matters because this regulation excludes many people who would like to help save lives. Many people are unaware of this type of discrimination, so I believe more public awareness is needed before continuing to lobby the FDA to reverse their stance.

Essays should be double spaced, 5-7 pages.

Since you are working with current issues, your sources should be up to date. Web sources are perfectly fine. Wikipedia is fine for initial research and finding a place to start. You should cite your sources in MLA format. You can find the latest MLA manual of style at the Purdue Online Writing Lab’s website.

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