Essay Sample on Navigating Gay Rights: The Dilemmas & Challenges Facing the State

Introduction

The article “Dating the State: The Moral Hazards of Winning Gay Rights” describes the challenges that are likely to be experienced by the state for allowing gay rights to be implemented. Political and ethical challenges expose the government to criticism to people who believe that gay rights are against the values of the people and communities (Franke). The state also gets criticism for failure to recognize gay rights; hence it gets the dilemma on the decision to make. Handling gay rights is a complex thing that needs to be handled with caution to respect the rights of the people and protects the rights of the gay community.

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The article compares different approaches used by Iran and Israel in implementing gay rights and the effects of the approaches to the politics of the countries. Global politics influence the decisions that states make. The hazards from the different approaches include human rights activists being murdered and tortured by the people opposed to gay rights (Franke). The perceptions of the people were also influenced negatively to change the views of the people towards gay rights. The author of the article states that gay rights bring moral hazards because people begin to believe that any behavior can be accepted and recognized even immoral behaviors because people have the right to do whatever they want.

Similarities

The content of the article are similar to those of the book as they both describe queer theory. “Queer: A graphic history” describes identity politics, and gender roles. It also explores what shaped the perception of sex, sexuality and gender. Additionally it analyzes how the perception is tangled to our culture as well as our understanding of psychology, biology and sexology as well as how these aspects have been challenged. This is similar to “Dating the State: The Moral Hazards of Winning Gay Rights” which analyzes the state recognition of gay rights and subsequently defend these rights (Franke). Just like in the novel there are aspects of politics and its relation to the LGBT rights. The state is a critical partner in the protection and recognition of sexual rights but sometimes they are compromised. How committed the nation is in defending the rights of the homosexuals sometimes depends on the interests of the country. Romania for example decriminalized acts of homosexuality and prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation in an effort to accede to European Union.

Differences

The media item is more detailed in addressing the queer theory. Apart from analyzing the contribution of the state in recognition of LGBT rights the author has amazingly addressed the complexities that arise when the rights of the homosexuals contradicts the interests of the nation. The book addresses queer theory and apart from addressing the issue of LGBT it also addresses queer thinking and what shaped our views on queer behaviors which are not addressed in the media item. The book’s therefore offers an in-depth analysis of queer theory and different meanings of queer thus serving as a source of meaningful information on queer theory. “Queer is a term used to refer to anyone who is attracted to a person of same sex (Barker 28)”. The book has touched on different aspects of queer theory and since are accompanied by pictures it is becomes easier to understand.

The book addresses queer interventions which are queer activism, queer theory and queer studies (Barker 36). These interventions help in understanding what queer behavior is and challenging the assimilationist ideas that focus on showing how normal people are thus making the homosexuals feel abnormal and intimidated. Queer activism has intervened by celebrating diversity and differences. The analysis of the concepts therefore is detailed thus making providing necessary information on what is regarded as queer and queer theory.

The Missing Perspective From the Article

The article lacks the voice of the gays where they should give ideas on how they think the idea needs to be deal with to help the state deal with the challenges experienced. The voice of the gay community is important because they are the key stakeholders and the people to be affected by the policies (Franke). The contributions of the gay community in the development of policies will ensure that the policies deal with the challenges faced by the people. The article highlights the outcome of the decisions made in embracing gay rights as moral hazards, not considering that the gay community also experiences challenges.

Conclusion

The article should also have included data from other regions that have recognized gay right and their success story how they dealt with the moral hazards that they experienced. The author of the articles should have recognized that communities are different from their own different cultures and values (Franke). The decisions of legalizing gay rights and affairs that should involve all the stakeholders by embracing the ideas of all the stakeholders. The response by the people in Iran and Israel was dependent on the values of the people and the level of involvement of all the stakeholders in developing gay-related policies. The moral hazards indicate that gay right issue should have been handled differently.

Works Cited

Barker, Meg-John. Queer: A graphic history. Icon Books, 2016.
https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=IUtODAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT12&dq=Queer:+A+graphic+history&ots=HM6gynVE5g&sig=8PDm1zNltzUvnw2Ph8dWUXCUtyg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Queer%3A%20A%20graphic%20history&f=false

Franke, Katherine. "Gender & Sexuality Law Blog » Blog Archive » Dating The State: The Moral Hazards Of Winning Gay Rights." Blogs.Law.Columbia.Edu, 2012,
http://blogs.law.columbia.edu/genderandsexualitylawblog/2012/12/19/dating-the-state-the-moral-hazards-of-winning-gay-rights-2/.