Indiana Youth Group has a new home on Meridian Street to help young LGBTQ Hoosiers
Indianapolis Star
If the recent election has told us anything, it’s that America is ready for change. We have elected a president and vice president who pledged to make ending discrimination against LGBTQ Americans a core feature of their administration and a top priority during their first 100 days in office.
When lawmakers reconvene, U.S. Sen. Todd Young should stand up for all Hoosiers and add his voice to the growing chorus of support for common-sense federal law to protect the 13 million LGBTQ Americans across virtually every area of daily life.
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We can all agree that all Americans should be able to participate in all aspects of daily life with dignity and respect, and without fear of discrimination. But for millions of LGBTQ people like me, the threat of discrimination is always present. Here in Indiana, we have no explicit protections for discrimination based on housing and public accommodations, and no explicit employment protections for transgender people.
Here’s how that plays out in real life: As the director of programs for Indiana Youth Group, an organization for LGBTQ youth in Indianapolis, I work with transgender youth who are facing homelessness and can’t find a place to stay. Far too often, shelters will tell our youth that they “don’t serve you here” or that they “don’t shelter transgender people.”
Can you imagine that? Leaving a child out in the cold simply because of who they are? In Indiana, it happens all the time.
My heart goes out to these kids. I know how much this kind of discrimination can hurt. My prior career was in the Army, and “don’t ask, don’t tell” was the law of the land at the time.
I’d already undergone gender-affirming surgery before I enlisted, and I assumed that I would be allowed to serve as long as I “didn’t tell” anyone my identity as a transgender woman.
My superiors felt differently. When they learned about my identity through a routine background check, they said I could serve out my term but wouldn’t be allowed to reup for another one.
It was devastating, but I gave the Army all I had until it was time for me to move on.
The thing to understand about discrimination is this: It can change the entire course your life. You can move beyond it if you’re lucky, but you can’t pretend it doesn’t matter.
The truth is, our basic rights should never be up for debate. Equality is not a Democratic or Republican value, it’s an American value. Everyone should be free to go about their daily lives — go into a store, check into a hotel, eat a meal at a restaurant — without fear of harassment or discrimination.
Similarly, no one should be denied housing, refused service, or fired from their job simply because of who they are or who they love. On this, I hope we can agree.
While some LGBTQ Americans are protected under the law, 50 percent of LGBTQ people in this country live in the 29 states that lack comprehensive statewide laws explicitly prohibiting discrimination against us. Indiana is one of them.
Now, with an incoming presidential administration and a growing pro-equality majority in Congress, we have the opportunity to ensure that every single LGBTQ American is free from discrimination in every aspect of their lives, no matter what state they call home.
As a fellow Hoosier and a fellow veteran, I’m asking Sen. Young to take a stand for his LGBTQ youth constituents and publicly support the Equality Act.
Kim Acoff is the director of programming for Indiana Youth Group, a nonprofit organization supporting LGBTQ youth in Indianapolis.
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