Information about unsolved murders of LGBT victims at Washington Metropolitan Police Department Sergeant Jessica Hawkins office in Washington, DC, October 10, 2016. Photo by Jonathan Ernst/ReutersInformation about unsolved murders of LGBT victims at Washington Metropolitan Police Department Sergeant Jessica Hawkins office in Washington, DC, October 10, 2016. Photo by Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

The results of the recent Presidential election reveal less about the candidates than they do about the status of the nation. One hundred and fifty years after the Emancipation Proclamation, we still are filled with racial hatred. One hundred years after women achieved the right to vote, they still are treated as second-class citizens. A decade after the Supreme Court struck down the sodomy laws, lesbian, gay, and transgender people still are harassed, hated, discriminated against, and even murdered with impunity.

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This term is used often to describe the U.S. Congress. Because of the divisive partisan politics, they have been unable to take action even on issues in which there is common agreement. The popular view of the Congress as dysfunctional has resulted in an attitude that all aspects of government are corrupt, inefficient, and stuck in the status quo to maintain access only by the privileged few. Recent controversial decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court have produced backlashes in state houses with reactive legislation, that in many cases have been over-ruled. As a result, the nation has become even more divided with protests, counter-protests, and random acts of violence.

Among the oldest protest movements was the Protestant Revolution. This “protest-ant” against the Roman Catholic Church challenged the status quo in which the clergy ruled with an iron hand, and the laity was shut out. In the centuries since then, the Protestants have splintered into dozens of denominations. Even the old mainline denominations: The Lutherans, Presbyterians, and Episcopalians have divided over various issues. The Methodist Episcopal Church split over the issue of slavery and took 80 years to re-unite. The United Methodist Church now threatens to divide again. A narrow majority want to maintain the status quo on doctrine as defined in The Book of Discipline. They have been arguing about one issue for more than 40 years.

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This spring The General Assembly of North Carolina passed a discriminatory law known as HB-2 that was directed at LGBT, especially transgender people. The rationale for the abrupt passage and signature, with no debate or discussion, was that it was a matter of public safety and quickly was tagged “the bathroom bill.” It was much broader than that and provoked not only demonstrations and condemnations across a broad spectrum of businesses, churches and organizations, but it also had an immediate and serious economic impact. Despite the fact that the reputation of the state had been severely damaged, the General Assembly refused to repeal the legislation so now it is headed into several lawsuits and countersuits.

Read more: The Law of...