Improved rights for gay employees

While the gay rights movement has focused its national efforts in recent years on marriage rights, some elemental legal protections against discrimination still fall short by not including the GLBT community. Notably, in 29 states it is legal to fire employees for being gay.

A New York Times editorial this week lauded proposed bills "in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, modeled on existing civil rights laws that cover race, religion and sex. Unlike some past bills, these include gender identity, protecting transgender people from discrimination." This type of progress is necessary to protect GLBT individuals.

Feminism can easily get caught up in focusing on private and individual achievements, a type of real grass roots activism that focuses on person-to-person education. But the need for policy change is significant, and its absence can be overwhelming. The editorial says that "federal law has lagged behind the reality of American life" when it comes to non-discrimination and the gay community, but federal law also has a great power to pull America forward. Federal policy that supports feminist principles may follow what many individuals already know or already practice, but law achieves more than just symbolic support. In this case, it would guarantee the rights for individuals who are currently unjustly excluded from basic legal protections. -Sara