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lgbtq rights

A young gay couple laying in bed.

There is a subtle form of prejudice that LGBTQ couples face when their relationships aren’t seen as viable or genuinely loving as heterosexuals. Some may believe that LGBTQ attraction is purely sexual or that their relationships are somehow inferior because they aren't "traditional."

The result is that LGBTQ couples can be made to feel that their love is seen as lesser than that enjoyed by straight people.

A 29-year-old gay man felt that his husband’s mother-in-law disrespected their marriage, and her homophobia was so blatant that the couple had to leave a family vacation. A Reddit user, throwaway5289392, went on vacation with his husband at an Airbnb with his family. The group was comprised of five couples—his husband’s three siblings and significant others, and his mother and father-in-law.

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India's Royal Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil.

Conversion therapy has been a hot topic for a while now with the LGBTQ+ community calling out the harm it has caused. Twenty states and more than 100 municipalities have banned conversion therapy in the United States, but no nationwide ban has happened as of yet. In India, conversion therapy is still an accepted form of therapy, and though there is evidence that it exacerbates symptoms of depression, shame, addiction, self harm and suicidal tenancies, being gay was outlawed in the country until 2018, and conversion therapy is considered treatment.

Royal Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil, India’s first openly gay prince, is continuing his fight to ban conversion therapy in India. In 2006, the prince made history at the age of 41 by coming out as gay. The decision to come out was immediately condemned due to his position and the fact that India had recently disregarded its outdated law, which used to be punishable by a lifetime in prison. Singh Gohil told Insider that people burned him in effigy. “The day I came out, my effigies were burnt. There were a lot of protests, people took to the streets and shouted slogans saying that I brought shame and humiliation to the royal family and to the culture of India,” he said. “There were death threats and demands that I be stripped of of my title.”

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Stonewall Inn, West Village.

One thing that screams amazing is Gen Z kids and the empowerment they exude. Whether it’s organizing protests or demanding to be taken seriously as their true selves, they can be truly awe-inspiring. Teens in the '90s perfected the eye roll and developed a “Clueless” croak, but teens and young adults of today seem to be activists from birth. Bucking the system that attempts to put them in a box or quiet their voices, today’s youth are in a league of their own, and it’s something to take in.

Will Larkins is one of those precocious Gen Zers that is breaking the mold on what society deems appropriate for teens to do. He's a junior at Winter Park High School in Winter Park, Florida, and has been making his presence known through his LGBTQ+ activism. He is the president and co-founder of his school’s Queer Student Union. On March 7, he led a walkout of more than 500 students in protest of Florida's proposed "Don't Say Gay" bill. Larkins, who uses they/him pronouns, posted a video to his Twitter account showing him teaching a history lesson on the Stonewall riots, which occurred in 1969. His history class was covering history spanning the 1960s and '70s, and he asked permission to include this bit of LGBTQ+ history that many people don’t learn about in school.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

Republican lawmakers in Florida are pushing a bill that would restrict how teachers are allowed to discuss gender and sexuality in kindergarten through fifth grades. Officially known as the Parental Rights in Education bill, it has been dubbed the “Don't Say Gay” bill by its opponents.

The bill recently passed a Florida House committee vote and cleared the state's Senate Education Committee this week.

Under the House bill, Florida school districts "may not encourage classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in primary grade levels or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students."

It could also encourage parents to sue schools if they feel that gender or sexuality has been discussed inappropriately.

The bill’s vague warning doesn’t define what "age-appropriate" and "developmentally appropriate” mean, leading some to believe it would shut down discussion of those matters altogether. If passed, teachers would be rightfully scared to broach the topics for fear of bringing a lawsuit upon their district.

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