Sodomy Laws Should They Be Eliminated Essays - Same-sex Sexuality

Sodomy Laws: Should They Be Eliminated Alvarez, Gary page 1 Eng. 101; sec. 51 Theme II rough draft 1 February 17, 2000 SODOMY LAWS: SHOULD THEY BE ELIMINATED? During the past decade, gays and lesbians have become more assertive in expressing their rights within American society. Although gay people are gaining legal rights and protection, they continue to be victims of discriminatory laws and social intolerance. Issues such as whether gays belong in the military, in the clergy, or in the teaching profession, have stirred the passions of many people. However, the concern with condemning the sexual practices of gays and lesbians is the issue that remains at the center of attention. These sexual practices, anal and oral sex have been prohibited by the government through sodomy laws. These laws state that any sexual act between two consenting adults of the same gender is criminal behavior, and therefore it is a criminal offense. In 1986, sodomy laws were found as constitutional in the landmark case of Bowers vs. Hardwick. By a vote of five to four, the Supreme Court of the United States overturned an earlier decision of sodomy laws; the court concluded that sodomy laws did not violate the fundamental rights of homosexuals. In addition, the court justified these discriminatory laws because American social mores are deeply rooted in Judeo-Christian tradition, which apparently condemns homosexuality and its practices (ACLU Paper: Gay and Lesbian rights). Through these laws and beliefs, confidence is given to people in order to justify their discrimination towards gays and lesbians. However, what the government fails to see is that sodomy laws infringe on a person's right to personal liberty, especially that of a gay person's life. Not only are these people being denied the humanizing experience of self-expression, they are also being culturally oppressed. These kinds of laws should be eliminated because they violate a person's right to love anyone intimately, a person's right to privacy and autonomy, and a person's right from government intrusion at any given time. First, through sodomy laws the government is depriving many individuals of their most profound feelings of affection by trying to criminally punish certain acts of sexual expression. Moreover, according to a consensus and the NGLFT survey of sodomy, since 1990 an estimated 17 and a half million people have been arrested because of sodomy laws; all of these arrests consisted of gay and lesbian people (Queer Resources Directory). As seen through this statistic, these laws are used to harass gays and lesbians, and are an attempt to destroy homosexual practices. Currently, a little less than half of the states have sodomy laws; the penalties for such crimes vary from state to state (Queer Resources Directory). For instance, the state of Maryland makes sodomy a felony punishable up to ten years in prison; this law is only applicable to gays and lesbians (Queer Resources Directory). Consequently, a gay couple would be arrested for engaging in oral sex; however, a heterosexual couple would not be arrested for engaging in the same kind of sexual activity. It is evident that these punitive laws create a hostile and homophobic environment that serves as a justification for the discrimination of gays and lesbians. Therefore, the first step towards the progression of prejudice of gays and lesbians is to eliminate the foundation of the problem: sodomy laws. The second reason why sodomy laws should be eliminated is because these laws violate a person's right to privacy; they transgress on a person's right to have intimate relations that are of primary importance in a person's life. In addition, sodomy laws forbid an individual's natural expression of love to another person in meaningful ways. According to the article The Freedom of Intimate Association by Professor Kenneth Karst, in sexual relationships individuals define themselves in a significant way through their sexual intimacy (Karst 637). Defining oneself freely as long as it does not create violence is a personal liberty guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States. Therefore, an individual, including gays and lesbians, should have the right to choose what nature and form these relationships are held. Finally, the right to privacy suggests that a major component of personal freedom is the right of people to live their lives without the fear

Biography of Olympic Figure Skater Oksana Baiul

Biography of Olympic Figure Skater Oksana Baiul Oksana Bauil (born Oksana Serhiyivna Baiul, November 16, 1977) is an Olympic figure skater from Ukraine. Bauil was the first athlete from Ukraine to win Olympic gold in any sport, but her post-career personal troubles put her in the headlines for different reasons. Soviet Childhood Oksana was born in Dnepropetrovsk, a military-industrial city, in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (then part of the Soviet Union). Her parents, Sergei and Marina, divorced when she was only two years old, and Sergei disappeared shortly after, whether of his own choice or due to disapproval from the town after the divorce. Oksana was raised by her mother and her maternal grandparents. At the age of three, Oksana began figure skating lessons, as well as ballet. Ultimately, she preferred skating, and by the age of five, she was training with Stanislav Koritek, a well-respected coach in Ukraine. Her family paid for all her expenses, even as they mounted. However, she suffered several losses close together: her grandparents died in 1987 and 1988, and then, in 1991, her mother Marina died suddenly and unexpectedly from what turned out to be ovarian cancer. Oksana was only thirteen. Coaching Changes and Olympic Success Even after the deaths of all her closest family members, more loss was still to come for Oksana. Her coach Koritek moved to Canada in 1992 to coach there, since there was little to no support for figure skating in Ukraine after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. With Oksanas promising career left dangling, the Ukrainian figure skating federation connected her with another coach, Galina Zmievskaya. Zmievskaya agreed not only to coach Oksana, but to allow her to live with her family in Odessa. Oksanas skating progressed rapidly under Zmievskayas tutelage. In 1993, she took home the silver medal at the European Championships, finishing behind French skater Surya Bonaly. At the World Championships that same year, she suffered an accident during practice that displaced disks in her back and neck and damaged the blades of her skates. She skated through the injury and equipment damage to win the world title at the age of fifteen. The 1993-1994 season would prove to be the peak of Oksanas career. She again won silver at Europeans (behind Bonaly, again) and was sent to the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, to represent Ukraine. After the short program portion of the competition, she was ranked second behind American Nancy Kerrigan. However, like at the previous World Championships, Oksana suffered an accident during practice before the free skate portion: a collision with German skater Tanja Szewcaenko resulted in a back injury and a cut on her leg requiring stitches. Nevertheless, she skated a strong free skate to overtake Kerrigan for Olympic gold. At the age of 16, she was the second-youngest Olympic skating champion in history at the time. Post-Olympic Struggles Despite her Olympic win, Oksana returned to a financially-struggling life in Ukraine. Even the conditions at the ice rink where she and fellow Ukrainian Olympian Viktor Petrenko practiced had been neglected due to lack of funds. Although she could have continued her amateur competitive career, the conditions and lack of support drove Oksana to turn professional instead. She and Zmievskaya negotiated her contract to tour in the United States. Although it was a more lucrative decision, the touring affected her health in several ways. Despite having knee surgery after the Olympics, she returned to the ice quickly in order to practice for touring shows, which permanently affected her ability to execute difficult jumps in particular. She also developed a drinking habit while on tour, which would haunt her for years, get her dropped from the Champions on Ice tour in 1997, and result in several scandalous headlines. In the mid-1990s, figure skating specials were commonplace on American television, and Oksana starred in two: The Nutcracker On Ice and The Wizard of Oz on Ice, both for CBS. the network also produced a 1994 television movie, A Promise Kept, about her life. After her drinking got her booted from the top-tier touring circuit, she continued to make appearances in skating shows, non-skating television programs, and charity shows. In November 2011, Oksana and her manager, Carlo Farina, found evidence of mismanagement of funds by her agency, William Morris. She successfully recovered $9.5 million. This was not the only lawsuit she engaged in. She also sued NBC for unauthorized use of her image, and accused Zmievskaya, Petrenko, and their manager Joseph Lemire of fraud and of falsely attempting to represent her in Ukrainian court proceedings. Present Day Oksana has mostly retired from public life. She married her manager Farina in 2015, changing her name to Oksana Baiul-Farina, and moving to Las Vegas. Unlike many other skaters of her era, she has not rejoined the skating world as a coach or commentator, instead leaving behind a single moment where she was the undisputed best in the world. Sources: Baiul, Oksana. Oksana: My Own Story. Random House, 1997.Oksana Baiul. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 12 Nov. 2018, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Oksana-Baiul

How to Send Tactful Emails from a Technical Support Desk

How to Send Tactful Emails from a Technical Support Desk How to Send Tactful Emails from a Technical Support Desk How to Send Tactful Emails from a Technical Support Desk By Ali Hale I work in technical support, which has given me many opportunities to develop the skill of phrasing things carefully. If you’re in an IT department or technology company, you doubtlessly have to deal with emails from irate people who’ve just spent hours struggling with a piece of unhelpful software. These users often have a preconception of technical support as being â€Å"unhelpful†, â€Å"slow† or â€Å"rude† and so it really helps to have some tactful phrases in your writing toolkit. When it’s a case of â€Å"user error† Don’t say â€Å"It’s your fault† or â€Å"You’ve done it wrong.† This is likely to annoy or upset the user, and escalate a potentially tricky situation. Instead, try opening your email with something that doesn’t sound like you’re blaming them: â€Å"Perhaps that section of the manual wasn’t very clear.† â€Å"I’m sorry you’re having problems with that.† Then use the main body of your email to give clear and concise help. It may be tempting to dash off as quick a message as possible, but you won’t save any time if the user then emails back because they’re still stuck. â€Å"Lots of people struggle with this, so let me take you through it step-by-step†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"This is how it’s supposed to work† Close your email by inviting them to let you know if they’re still having trouble at all: â€Å"Just let me know if you’ve got any more questions.† â€Å"Email us if you’re still having problems once you’ve tried the above.† Putting it all together, here’s an example of how not to do it: â€Å"There’s an ‘I forgot my password’ button for a REASON, idiot.† And here’s how to make someone’s day a little brighter: â€Å"Sorry to hear you’re having trouble logging in. I’ve checked on our end, and we’re not experiencing any system downtime. Just click on the ‘I forgot my password’ button and it’ll send your account details straight to your inbox. Let me know if you don’t receive that email, or if you have any more problems at all, and I’ll be glad to help.† When the bug or problem is yours If there’s a problem on your end, it’s a good idea to apologise. Don’t go over the top in prostrating yourself for every tiny thing, but do make it clear that you’ve acknowledged that there’s something wrong. Using phrases like â€Å"slight bug†, â€Å"temporary problem†, â€Å"minor issue† are much more likely to calm worries than â€Å"catastrophical error† or â€Å"huge mistake† (even if the latter are more accurate†¦) Starting your email with a brief â€Å"Sorry† or an acknowledgement that there is something wrong, will help calm down the user instantly: â€Å"Sorry about that.† â€Å"Yes, I’ve managed to repeat the problem you reported.† Let them know what’s being done to fix the situation (unless you can fix it on the spot before emailing them back). Don’t make any promises you can’t keep, but do give some idea of likely timeframes for a solution: â€Å"Our programmers are looking into it at the moment.† â€Å"We’re hoping to have it back up and running by the end of the day.† Close your email by apologising for the inconvenience to them, especially if there’s going to be a long delay in getting the problem fixed. And reassure them that they’ll be informed as soon as it is sorted out – otherwise you’ll risk them sending hourly emails demanding to know if there’s any progress. â€Å"My apologies for the inconvenience in the meantime.† â€Å"Let me know if there’s anything else I can do to help.† â€Å"We’ll email again as soon as it’s working.† This sort of email is not likely to meet with a good response (especially if your boss sees it): â€Å"Yeah, that’s our fault, huge screw-up. We’ll get it fixed soonish.† This is much more likely to lead to a happy user who is confident that you’ve got the situation under control. â€Å"Sorry about that. I can see there is a slight problem, and we’re investigating exactly what the issue is. We’ll get back to you as soon as it’s working again – it should be sorted out within a couple of days.† Keep a list of the above phrases on hand for those moments when you need to tactfully unruffle feathers and unfray nerves: it’ll make your job a lot easier! Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Business Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:The Meaning of "To a T"7 Patterns of Sentence Structure48 Writing Prompts for Middle School Kids

The effects of different political parties on the US economy Essay

The effects of different political parties on the US economy - Essay Example Despite this, Reagan added his own brand of Big Government with the swelling of the National Debt under his watch which crippled the economy. Liberal and conservative economic ideologies cannot necessarily be connected with Democratic and Republican Parties respectively as this paper will illuminate. The Great Depression was the worst economic slump ever in U.S. history, and one which spread to virtually the entire industrialized world. Many factors played a role in bringing about the depression; however, the main cause for the Great Depression was the combination of the greatly unequal distribution of wealth throughout the 1920’s, and the extensive stock market speculation that took place during the latter part of that same decade. The misdistribution of wealth in the 1920s existed on many levels. Money was distributed disparately between the rich and the middle-class, between industry and agriculture within the United States, and between the U.S. and Europe. This imbalance of wealth created an unstable economy. The excessive speculation in the late 1920s kept the stock market artificially high, but eventually lead to large market crashes. These market crashes, combined with the misdistribution of wealth, caused the American economy to capsize. The ‘roaring twentie s’ was an era when our country prospered tremendously. The nation’s total realized income rose from $74.3 billion in 1923 to $89 billion in 1929 (Hicks, 1960 p. 110). However, the rewards of the (Republican) ‘Coolidge Prosperity’ of the 1920’s were not shared evenly among all Americans. According to a study done by the Brookings Institute, in 1929 the top 0.1 percent of Americans had a combined income equal to the bottom 42 percent (McElvaine, 1984 p. 38). That same top 0.1 percent of Americans in 1929 controlled 34 percent of all savings, while 80 percent of Americans had no savings at all (McElvaine, 1984 p. 38).

In the United Kingdom the big four supermarkets of Tesco, Asda, Essay

In the United Kingdom the big four supermarkets of Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's and Wm Morrison have gained a steadily increasing - Essay Example In recent time some of the retail giants of United Kingdom like Sainsbury, Asda, Morrisons and Tesco have been accused of swindling the suppliers by paying them the bottom prices or finding some other way by which they can pressurise the suppliers to pay the cost of the unsold or perished goods. There are also other ways by which the suppliers are exploited that includes paying lower than the agreed price after the delivery of the order, delaying to pay them, make changes in the order at the last moment, making the suppliers to bear the cost, forcing the supplier to use certain specific expensive hauliers for delivering their goods and often ruining the supplier due to lack of cash flow. The supermarket retailers even pressurised the suppliers to pay for the shoplifted goods and making their profits to rise high, when they are expected to be lower. The study focuses on this issue. Supermarket competition Relentless rise in the supermarkets has given rise to the concern regarding thei r holdings over the suppliers and the customers. A research conducted by TNS Worldpanel, the market research group has concluded that the big four retail giants of UK Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Asda and Tesco holds almost three quarter of the grocery market that amounts to about 74.4%. Tesco is the leading supermarket that holds the biggest share. The report suggests that for every ?8 the consumer spends ?1 goes towards the business of Tesco. In 2004 it has been recorded that the retail sector of UK amounts to almost ?246bn, which is more than the amount if the economies of Ireland and Switzerland are combined together. This implies that the retail sector offers quite a significant amount (BBC News, 2006). (Source: BBC News, 2006) According to the reports of the All Party Parliamentary Small Shops Group, almost half of 278,630 shops in UK are managed and owned by a sole trader. These small local stores are losing their market because of the growth of the supermarkets that are gradually moving towards the convenience store format. As per the report of Association of Convenience Store for the last twelve months till June of 2005, 2000 independent convenience stores closed their operations owning to the growing competition of the supermarkets. The Office of fair Trading (OFT) has been investigating the two main issues firstly the competition that surrounds the worries regarding the competition in the supermarkets and abusing relationship between the supermarket and the suppliers. The OFT has claimed that there is no restriction on the grocery market, which prompts a widespread scorn from the action group and the local shops. OFT further states that there is no need of incorporating any type of reform in the ways the super markets are operating; though there are claims regarding application of bullying tactics by the four big supermarkets. According to the recent declaration of OFT there are significant indications regarding increase in the purchasing power of the cu stomer of the supermarket (BBC News, 2006). Area of Concern The corner and local shop areas are becoming the potential places for the growth of the supermarkets. The four big supermarkets face certain restrictive measures that pave the pathway for expanding their operations by following the convenient store format. This also helps the supermarkets to target the customers who are cash rich

Vonneguts Slaughterhouse-Five as an Antiwar Novel :: Slaughterhouse-Five Essays

Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five as an Antiwar Novel War can affect and inspire people to many degrees. Kurt Vonnegut was inspired by war to write Slaughterhouse-Five, which is a unique book referred to sometimes as a science fiction or semi-autobiographical novel. But, if facts are inferred in the novel, like the similarity of Vonnegut to Billy Pilgrim, facts about other characters (specifically the Tralfamadorians), and the themes and structure of the novel, another way of viewing ;this book can be seen that is as an anti war piece of writing. In fact, Vonnegut demonstrates his own antiwar sentiments throughout the novel. This novel's main character, Billy Pilgrim is like Vonnegut in many ways. Kurt Vonnegut is an American novelist from Indianapolis, Indiana, born in 1922. A very important part of Vonnegut's life was when he served in WWII, and was a prisoner of war (POW) in Dresden, Germany. During that time he experienced the firebombing of Dresden, which affected him greatly. This event had around 135,000 causalities, which is about twice the number killed in Hiroshima by the atomic bomb (1969 Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five). Many claim that his involvement in the war is what made him write Slaughterhouse-Five. When Vonnegut created Billy Pilgrim, he made Billy subject to the experience of war. In fact, Billy experiences it almost exactly the same as Vonnegut himself had, including the experiences of being a POW and in the firebombing of Dresden. But in Billy's case, Vonnegut writes it with a particular point of view, which is against war. For example, when Vonnegut writes of the ways Billy views things, especially in the war, he makes Billy's view "slanted, which makes the reader perceive the war as

Academic Honesty-It Was Peer Reviewed and Published

The Issue In this was that most students thought It would be easier to heat In their online courses however very few followed through with cheating. It's also a theory that an honor code may reduce dishonesty. The second article I found while searching was Academic Integrity and Distance Learning by Mark Lankier. It was peer reviewed and published in the Journal of Criminal Justice Education in October of 2006. In this article academic dishonesty in on campus classes versus online classes was discussed.It believes that there hasn't been enough attention on the amount of academic dishonesty taking place in online courses. Here are some things that I feel are issues for academic honesty: -Lack of knowledge in what Is considered honest and dishonest. -Lack of concentration on academic honesty, the majority of the attention Is placed on academic dishonesty. -Lack of punishment for academic dishonesty therefore making It easier and more tempting to be dishonest. -Over assumption that It's easier to be dishonest through online classes without any consequences.Some things that I think should be done is honor code placement such as was issued in the first article I found. I think that if there was a concrete definition of what is considered cheating and what isn't because some people can cheat without knowing so because of their lack of knowledge. I think that academic honesty deserves more attention simply to acknowledge students who are working hard and being compliant and honest about their work. They are taking the time to make sure their work is original and that they are not taking any credit for someone else's hard ark.I think this deserves to be acknowledged Instead of overshadowed by people who are dishonest. I believe there should be punishment when it comes to severe cases of dishonesty. When It Is clear that the work has been popularized and taken as If It were their own, there should be no chances given. Academic dishonesty has continual to De a problem An a students need to Know Tanat It wall not De tolerated I think that the punishment for on campus students should be the same for online students.The place in which the dishonesty is taking place does not matter, dishonesty is dishonesty and all cases should be treated the same. In order for me to avoid any issues with dishonesty I will never cut and paste. If something is an exact quote I will make sure that it is cited and listed in a bibliography to ensure that it's known it was not something derived by me. I will summarize and make sure I use my own words to explain my point. I will also use the plagiarism checker provided by the university to double check.