The United States is facing a frightening upswing of bias based violence and other related forms of discrimination against a group of its citizens, not unlike that which occurred during the civil rights struggles of the 1960s. In this case the victims are those who were born with a sexual orientation which differs from that of the nation's majority. Through no fault of their own, they find themselves the targets of a host of unjustifiable and illegal acts.

In order for gay civil rights to be recognized and respected, it will be an uphill struggle, as is demonstrated in the history of gay civil rights. For example, the struggles that homosexuals have had just to be recognized as a legal family unit, and other governmental entities do not recognize gay marriages as equivalent to traditional different-sex weddings. Even though the couple is committed, the government entities will not permit them to have a legal wedding, like heterosexual people do.

Laws protecting the civil rights of homosexuals are getting much better right now. There are some new laws regarding living and employment conditions that prohibit discriminating against homosexuals. This is giant progress for gay civil rights, but it does not promise that homosexuals will have the same opportunities to succeed as straight people do. For example, some employers are exploiting loopholes in the laws, mostly in "right-to-work" states.

Statistically, gay hate crimes are in decline. However, that doesn't necessarily indicate that they are happening less often. Since the struggle for homosexual rights is still very much ongoing, many gays are frightened or embarrassed to notify authorities when they are victims of such incidents. For this reason, while the numbers related to reported violence may be right, many occurrences are never talked about or are called in as another type of illegal behavior.

Perhaps the biggest opposition to the gay movement is the conservatives. These people are generally the ones who believe in the old way of doing things and are hesitant to change. These opponents are usually based heavily in some religion where gays are unnatural and hated for choosing to be gay. People are being killed for this line of thought daily.

Homosexual civil rights are becoming a prominent issue in the lives of many individuals. There is no reason for intolerance. Violence against an individual for reasons of sexual orientation is not acceptable. While prejudices will always exist, much can be learned from the past concerning acceptance and tolerance. When a bright light is shown on those doing wrong, it becomes much easier to eliminate such evil and those that responsible.

The history of gay rights shows us that it will be a long and tedious project to obtain total equality and equal gay civil rights. Many areas still do not see gay marriage as a legal binding contract. Many new laws have been instated to make sure that housing and employment opportunities do not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. Though there are fewer crimes against gays, they aren't really any less frequent. Conservatives are probably the biggest opponents of the gay movement. They feel that gays are against nature, and should be hated for being gay.