We Are All Human - a news broadcast

This is an action project for my core class Equality. In this unit, we spent our time looking at the inequalities of race, class, and gender. We took a deep dive into each subject and listened to different stories from people who have experienced inequality. We listened to a podcast by This American Life, we read stories of micro-aggressions, and we played a special type of monopoly where each person was part of a different social class and was subjected to different class rules. For example, I was lower class and I started with only five hundred dollars, while those in the upper class started with 2500 dollars. For this AP, we were tasked with envisioning a policy change in the year 2122. The policy I chose to create was globally appointing gender identity and sexual orientation as a protected class. 

Script:

[June 28th, 2122]

Today marks the 171st anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in New York City, NY. 

This is a momentous occasion, as it marks the beginning of a global stand for acceptance of queer people across the world. The queer identity is no longer discriminated against and punishable by law. This act is recognized on a global scale according to the United Nations. To celebrate, Pride Parades are being hosted in many countries around the world that were once considered to dangerous to live in and travel to for queer people. You can see, many people attended this march in Nigeria in support of the LGBTQ community. Nigeria was once considered one of the most dangerous places for LGBTQ people as the maximum punishment was death by stoning.  

To understand how far we have come as a society, we first have to look back at the infamous Stonewall riots of 1969. It began in the early hours of June 28, 1969, when New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay club located in Greenwich Village in New York City. The raid sparked a riot among bar patrons and neighborhood residents as police roughly hauled employees and patrons out of the bar, leading to six days of protests and violent clashes with law enforcement outside the bar on Christopher Street, in neighboring streets, and in nearby Christopher Park.  This was a turning point in recognition for the queer community as the Stonewall Riots served as motivation for the gay rights movement in the United States and around the world. The year following the riots, marches were held for gay liberation across the United States. Within the next decade, the idea of a parade celebrating queerness had gone international.

Looking back 100 years, it was found that even the wealthiest countries in the world at the time still struggled with lgbtq+ discrimination 71 years after Stonewall. In China, many queer people faced legal, societal, cultural, medical, and educational discrimination. While in the United States, queer individuals were discriminated against on the bias of religion, law, education.

The UN hopes for the discrimination and punishment of queerness to be a thing of the past as they implement a global policy called, ‘We are all human‘. This policy globally makes gender identity and sexual orientation a protected class. This will decriminalize the private, consensual, same-sex sexual activity in 19 countries that currently criminalize it. As well as decriminalize the gender identity and expression of transgender people, using so-called ‘cross-dressing’, ‘impersonation’ and ‘disguise’ laws that 6 countries currently use criminalize LGBTQ+ existence. 

One viewer wanted to express their thoughts on this new policy. Let's hear from them now. 

“Words can not express how I feel. Today I am officially recognized through my government as human. My partner and I are ecstatic that we do not have to hide from the rest of society, and soon hope to be legally recognized as a married couple  when we return to my home country of Nigeria.” 

After speaking with this individual, you can see how important this policy is. As we now come together to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community. We must not forget to acknowledge their existence and struggles throughout history. As you can see, today's reporting does not lack that acknowledgment. As a queer woman, I can now say I am proud of the world I live in.

Conclusion:

This project was really fun to create. I was able to research and understand how other places in the world criticize the existence of queer identities and what has to be changed. The thing that was challenging was editing my video because I was having technical difficulties for the majority of the editing process. If I could change one thing I would change the script and update it a little bit so it sounded better. Overall, I enjoyed this unit and am proud of the AP I completed.